DR. CHU MIN-I, CHINA'S AMBASSADOR TO JAPAN
By NAOYOSHI UJITA
A YEAR has passed since the reorganized National Government of China, which shares responsibility with Japan in the task of the construction of a new order in East Asia, returned to Nanking to establish there the central seat of government. With its steady growth in political power and influence, the Nanking Government has since gone forward with a general peace programme. It was formally recognized by the Japanese Government on November 30 last year in a basic Sino-Japanese Treaty concluded by the two Governments, and there are indications that Germany, Italy and other Axis Powers will shortly extend formal recognition also. Following Japan's formal recognition, the question who would be appointed its first Ambassador to Japan attracted widespread attention. The question, however, found a ready answer, for the popular verdict was that Dr. Chu Min-i, then Vice-President of the Executive Yuan and Minister of Foreign Affairs, was best qualified to become the first envoy of the reorganized National Government of China to Japan. In personality, career, abilities and talent, no better Ambassador to Japan than Dr. Chu Min-i could have been selected.
In popularity he is next only to Chief Executive Wang Ching-wei among National Government figures, having had a brilliant career always in the forefront of the movement for the construction of new China. Not only does the reorganized National Government of China at Nanking owe to him that it is what it is, but to him also is due the harmonious atmosphere which prevails among the members of the National Government.
In choosing Dr. Chu Min-i as Ambassador to Japan, Chief Executive Wang Ching-wei must have been keenly conscious that he could ill spare his services at home, and it must have been his realization of the importance of future relations between Japan and China alone which induced him to make the great sacrifice of releasing Dr. Chu from home politics to become the first Ambassador to Japan.
Ambassador Chu Min-i who is styled Chung-hsing was born at Wuhsing in Chekiang Province in the eighth year of the Kwangchu era (1884), and he is, therefore, of the same age as Chief Executive Wang, being in his fifty-eighth year. His wife is a relative of Wang Ching-wei's wife, Madame Chen Pichun, and he and the Chief Executive have always been on the most intimate of terms, Chu Min-i paying deference to Wang Ching-wei as to an elder brother, and being ready to undertake no matter what thankless task for his sake. When it was decided that the reorganized National Government of China should return to Nanking, Dr. Chu Min-i, as chairman of the commission for the return of the Government to the old capital, was among the first to arrive at Nanking, and worked day and night to put all government offices in order, without regard to personal danger, to the extreme anxiety of those close to him who felt that the exhaustion, both physical and mental, brought on by this overwork might undermine his health.
Toward the end of the Ching Dynasty, Dr. Chu Min-i studied for more than a year at the Third Higher School in Kyoto, and therefore understands Japanese. Later, he went to France, where he stayed thirteen years, studying medicine and pharmacology and being granted the degree of doctor of medicine by the University of Strasbourg.
The thirteen years of his sojourn in France were eventful ones. Joining the China League, an association of Chinese revolutionaries, he worked with Tsai Yuan-pei, Wu Chi-hun, Li Shih-tseng and others in spreading revolutionary ideas not only among the Chinese colony in France, but among his fellow-countrymen at home and was for a time associated with a revolutionary
newspaper. His friendship with Wang Ching-wei dates from this period. In 1914, on the outbreak of the first European War, he returned to China to participate in the revolutionary movement. After a short time, however, he went to France again to resume his medical studies at the University of Strasbourg. In 1921 when a Franco-Chinese University was established at Lyons, he was nominated Vice-Chancellor. In 1924, he returned to China and in the next year was appointed Dean of the Medical College of Canton University, later becoming Chancellor of the University. In 1926 he was nominated candidate member of the second Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang Party, and when the Kuomintang despatched an expedition to the north, he joined the expeditionary force as chief medical officer. On the successful conclusion of the northern expedition, he was appointed president of the Franco-Chinese Technological Institute at Shanghai in 1927, and in 1928 was sent by the National Government to Belgium to inspect sanitary works there. In 1931, he was elected member of the fourth Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang Party, and was shortly afterwards appointed chief secretary of the Executive Yuan of the National Government, steadily gaining in influence and weight, as a leading member of the Kuomintang, being a member of the Central Control Committee in 1935, Vice-Chairman of the Commission for Planning Cultural Works in 1936, and a member of the National Economic Commission.
In July, 1937, when hostilities broke out between Japan and China, Dr. Chu was devoting his efforts for the most part to education as president of the Franco-Chinese Technological Institute in the French Concession, Shanghai. In spite of the spread of hostilities, he did not leave Shanghai, and despite the vigilant surveillance and pressure of the Chungking régime, he continued to prepare for a general peace with Japan, and kept in secret touch with Wang Ching-wei. Nothing is known to the world about his self-sacrificing efforts during those days for the cause of peace. When Wang Ching-wei fled from Chungking to Hanoi and came to Shanghai from the capital of French
Indo-China, he was one of the first to rally to him. Thus, Ambassador Chu Min-i is not only a veteran Chinese revolutionary, but has been one of the mainstays of the peace movement in China since the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese conflict. This accounts for his choice by the National Government as chief Chinese delegate in negotiating the basic treaty with Japan last year, he and Shin-ichiro Hidaka, Counsellor of the Japanese Embassy at Nanking, being chiefly responsible for the smooth conduct of the delicate negotiations. It is natural that he came forward to initial the basic Sino-Japanese Treaty with a smile on his face and signed with a vigorous pen.
Ambassador Chu is the possessor of a unique personality, which it is however difficult to define. It is obvious, however, that he commands the esteem and affection of all those who come into contact with him. It is said that even the hardboiled anti-Japanese elements in the Chungking government who advocate a fight to a finish against Japan do not venture to make any attack on Dr. Chu Min-i. Some even assert that he and he alone among the leaders of the National Government at Nanking could obtain even now a safe-conduct for a journey to and from Chungking. He has then no enemy; his well-rounded personality disarms all opposition from his political adversaries.
This may be the reason why he is asked to preside over so many public institutions as chairman or director-general. When a new organization is set up, he is invariably asked to preside over it, if any difficulty is felt by its sponsors in finding a suitable chairman. His popularity in this direction continues to increase; recently he counted up the number of such public institutions with which he is associated and found that it exceeded a dozen.
Dr. Chu Min-i is also director-general of the Society of Japan-China Cultural Relations inaugurated at Nanking last year, being virtually its chief founder. For that service alone his name will be remembered forever. He may well take pride in the institute he has thus founded and fostered and to whose offices he makes it a rule to take prominent Japanese visitors to
Nanking.
A returned French student, Ambassador Chu does not belong to the category of clever politicians, but on the contrary he fully retains all the virtues of Oriental gentlemanship, openheartedness and versatility. To the Chinese people in general Dr. Chu is also well known as the founder and great master of "Tai Chi Chuan," the new-style boxing, his pupils numbering several thousands. His system combines gymnastics into the old style Chinese boxing and has been added by the Education Ministry of the National Government to the secondary school curriculum. Whenever he can snatch a few hours from his attendance to Ambassadorial duties, he regularly takes exercise in this style of gymnastics which he has developed in a hall next to his private room on the second floor of the Chinese Embassy buildings in Tokyo. To this his sturdy and imposing physique is doubtlessly due. He has published several books on Tai Chi Chuan and is chairman of the Amateur Athletic Association of China.
No less keen interest is taken by Ambassador Chu in Buddhism. Almost all the old Buddhist temples in and round Nanking have been repaired and restored by his efforts, including the noted Tsisia, Kulin and Chiming Temples. It is an inspiring sight to see the priests of those temples on meeting him stop and clasp their hands together in veneration of him. In celebration of the anniversary of the death of his mother, his rule is to copy out Buddhist sutras as a work of devotion for the repose of her soul. These he has engraved on wood and prints made to distribute among his friends and relatives. A calligrapher of no mean order, he writes in the orthodox square style of the early Tang Dynasty.
His other hobbies are singing the "Kun Chu," the famous tune of the Mongol or Yuan Dynasty, the collection of pictures and writings and books of travel. Deploring the fact that little interest is now taken in the Kun Chu, he has done all he could to popularize it. Himself an accomplished singer of the tune with an effective voice, he has sometimes appeared on the stage
to sing it, and on moonlight nights, he often strolls about his garden, singing the old Kun Chu tune. Very sociable, he takes pleasure in gathering together a party of his friends to chat, and to eat and drink, though a teetotaller himself. He seeks neither fame nor riches but the warm heart of his friends, or rather desires to open his warm heart to others. In chatting with his friends, he forgets his status and his official post and is content but to chat. It would be difficult to find a diplomat with more of the human touch.
Dr. Chu Min-i is then the best qualified man to become Ambassador to Japan, representing the reorganized National Government at Nanking. In his first interview, granted to the press aboard the Yawata Maru on the way to his post in Tokyo, he vowed to do his utmost to draw closer the bonds of friendship and co-operation between Japan and China, and added: "The Peace Treaty between Japan and China has entered on the stage of execution. In a spirit of co-operation between Japan and China, I will co-operate with Japan."
Since his assumption of the Tokyo post, he has lived up to his pledge. While the new relationships between Japan and China will gain in cordiality and strength, thanks to his enthusiasm and efforts, he will also be successful in popular diplomacy through his contact with various strata of society in this country. The people of all classes will certainly be fascinated by his amicable personality, reinforced by his versatility and brilliant talent. Ambassador Chu is indeed one of the most powerful pioneers in the field of reconstruction of East Asia.