Huang Fu

Huang Fu

Huáng Fú (黃郛) (1883-1936) was a general and politician in early republican China. He was born in Hangzhou.

Biography

Huang studied at Zhejiang Military College and Qiushi Academy (current Zhejiang University), later went to Japan. Huang came in contact with the Revolutionary Alliance while studying in a military academy in the Empire of Japan. During the Xinhai Revolution, he and Chen Qimei declared Shanghai independent and became blood brothers of Chiang Kaishek.

He was forced to flee abroad after the failed Second Revolution of 1913 against Yuan Shikai and returned after Yuan's death to represent Zhejiang's military government in Beijing. When Sun Yatsen ordered Kuomintang members to swear personal loyalty to him, Huang objected and left.

He supported China's entry into World War I hoping it would regain lost territories. He worked with President Xu Shichang as a diplomat, co-wrote books about economics and foreign affairs and would often guest lecture at universities. He was part of China's delegation to the Washington Naval Conference which secured the Beiyang government's greatest diplomatic triumph, the return of Shandong.

After the fall of Cao Kun in the 1924 Beijing coup, he became acting president of the Republic of China on the request of Feng Yuxiang. He declared Cao's term illegal because it was obtained through bribery and also repudiated the agreement which allowed Puyi to live in the Forbidden City.

Huang was influential in winning over Feng Yuxiang and Yan Xishan to Chiang Kaishek's faction of the KMT which was one of the major reasons why Wang Jingwei's Wuhan regime collapsed. He later served under several offices during the Nanjing decade including Shanghai mayor, foreign minister, and chairman of the North China Political Council. Despite his close ties to Chiang, he never rejoined the KMT as he did not want to be associated with the opportunists who joined during and after the Northern Expedition. In 1933, he signed the unpopular Tanggu Truce which ceded Chahar, Rehe, and part of Hebei to Japanese puppet states. Like Chiang, he thought the Communists were the greater threat than the Japanese.