He Yingqin

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He Yingqin : biography

02 April 1890 – 21 October 1987

In the same year, the Mukden Incident took place in Manchuria. Chiang regarded the CCP as his archrival and placed priority on the suppression of CCP forces, the Japanese should be dealt with by compromises instead of war. Thus, He was sent to Northern China to handle these tough issues because of his friendly way to the Japanese. In 1933, Japanese armies invaded Rehe and broke through the KMT defense along the Great Wall. He Yingqin replaced Zhang Xueliang as chairman of the Beijing Military Committee, which was the supreme organ in charge of the military forces of Northern China. He advocated no direct confrontation with the Japanese troops, and signed the Tanggu Cease-Fire Accord with Okamura Yasuji (岡村寧次), who was deputy chief of staff of Kantogun at that time.

After that, He Yingqin opposed campaigns and efforts against the Japanese, and disarmed Feng Yuxiang’s anti-Japanese army. In 1935, Japanese troops started several incidents. When the Blue Shirts Society, the secret organization of the Whampoa Clique of the KMT, and a firm anti-Japanese group fought back with assassination and other violent activities, the Japanese argued that it was violation of the Tanggu Accord signed between China and Japan which was to keep the status quo of Northern China. Under the name of Yoshijirō Umezu, who was commander of Japanese troops in Northern China at that time, the Japanese spy agency under the direction of Kenji Doihara provided an investigation of the BSS as appendix of a memo. He agreed with all issues proposed by Japanese in this memo, which later was called He-Umezu Agreement. According to this accord, all forces having relations with the BSS inclusive of military police, regular forces such as 2nd Division and 25th Division should be evacuated from Beijing and out of Hebei province. The BSS had to retreat from Beijing in humiliation.

With KMT forces out of Northern China, He Yingqin had little room for maneuver. Then, he returned to Nanjing to do his job as minister. In Dec 1936, the Xian Incident broke out, Chiang was taken into custody by Zhang Xueliang’s army. There were disagreements among the KMT leaders on how to handle this incident. Chiang’s wife Soong May-ling was afraid of Chiang being killed and urged peace negotiations. He’s role was quite controversial. He was voted as acting commander to lead the KMT armies to the rescue of Chiang. Historians used to say that He strongly supported the need to solve this incident by force, for which reason He contacted Wang Jingwei and asked him back to China to take charge of the KMT, and sent two armies marching to Xian to fight against Zhang’s army. There was a saying when Soong May-ling came to He and asking for peaceful solution, He refuted her as a woman knowing little of politics should leave state issues alone. However, new evidence showed that actually it was the Whampoa clique especially those young and extremist officers of the Blue Shirts Society that launched the military attack against Zhang, and He even rejected their request for a supporting army.

Soong came to Xian for peace talks and did succeed in rescuing Chiang. When Chiang came back, he distrusted He again. Nonetheless, He still held his position of minister but with little real power.

When the Chinese anti-Japanese war turned into a general war after the occurrence of the Marco Polo Bridge Incident in 1937, He Yingqin was appointed as chief of staff and worked with Chiang for drafting military plans. In 1944, when his title of Minister of War was taken over by Chiang’s favorite, Chen Cheng, He was appointed as General Commander of the Chinese Military Area, which was an honorable title instead of real power, and was sent to Yunnan to train the Chinese Expeditionary Army, which was set up under the proposal of Joseph Stilwell, for assisting in the ally force’s operation in Southeast Asia.

In August 1945, when Japan announced its unconditional surrender, He was appointed as representative of both the Chinese Government and the Southeast Asia Ally Forces to host the surrender of Japanese troops in China. On Sept 9th, He accepted the statement of surrender submitted by Yasuji Okamura, who was General Commander of Japanese troops in China at that time. This historic moment put He under the spotlight of the world, and was the peak of his career.