Cao Rulin

Beiyang government and warlords 1877–1966 ○ Natural death

Pro-Japanese official who signed the Twenty-One Demands treaty, the “traitor” whose house burned on 4 May

Born the son of a scholar in Shanghai, he studied law in Japan at Waseda and Chuo universities from 1899 to 1904. Appointed to the Senate by Yuan Shikai in 1913, he signed the Twenty-One Demands treaty with Japan on Yuan’s orders in 1915. He later led the New Communications Clique and was counted a leading member of the pro-Japanese camp. On 4 May 1919 the demonstrating students denounced him, Zhang Zongxiang and Lu Zongyu as traitors and burned his house; he escaped disguised as a servant. When the Shanghai general strike threatened to spread to other provinces he resigned on 10 June. He then turned to business in the Tianjin concession, went to Taiwan in 1949, moved on to Japan and the United States and died in the United States in 1966.

Also known as: Ts'ao Ju-lin