Chen Gongbo

陳公博
Republic of China state institutions Counter-revolution Nationalism China China 1892–1946 ✕ Executed by firing squad

CCP founding delegate turned KMT leftist who became the last head of the Wang Jingwei regime and was executed

Born into a Hakka family in Nanhai, Guangdong, in 1892, he took part in the May Fourth Movement at Peking University and studied Marxism under Chen Duxiu. He attended the First Congress of the Chinese Communist Party in 1921 as a Guangzhou delegate, but broke with the party by backing Chen Jiongming in 1922 and was expelled in 1923. After a master's degree in economics at Columbia University he joined the Kuomintang in 1925, became a leading figure of its left and Reorganisation faction alongside Wang Jingwei, and was minister of industry from 1932 to 1935. He followed Wang into the collaborationist government in Nanjing in 1940 as speaker of the Legislative Yuan and mayor of Shanghai, and on Wang's death in 1944 became acting chairman and President of the Executive Yuan. Fleeing to Japan after its defeat, he was extradited and shot for treason at Suzhou in 1946.

Also known as: Chen Kung-po

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