Cao Rulin (; January 23, 1877 – August 1966,

Midland, Michigan Midland is a city in Midland County, Michigan, United States, and its county seat. The population was 42,547 at the 2020 census. It is the principal city of the Midland metropolitan statistical area, part of the larger Saginaw-Midland-Bay City ...

, United States) was Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs of the

Beiyang Government The Beiyang government was the internationally recognized government of the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic of China between 1912 and 1928, based in Beijing. It was dominated by the generals of the Beiyang Army, giving it its name. B ...

, and an important member of the pro-Japanese movement in the early 20th century. He was a

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

lawyer working in Beijing when he was appointed by the provisional president,

Yuan Shikai Yuan Shikai (; 16 September 18596 June 1916) was a Chinese general and statesman who served as the second provisional president and the first official president of the Republic of China, head of the Beiyang government from 1912 to 1916 and ...

, to a vacant seat in the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...

's senate in 1913. He represented

Outer Mongolia Outer Mongolia was the name of a territory in the Manchu-led Qing dynasty of China from 1691 to 1911. It corresponds to the modern-day independent state of Mongolia and the Russian republic of Tuva. The historical region gained ''de facto'' ...

because Mongolia boycotted the elections after declaring independence during the

Xinhai Revolution The 1911 Revolution, also known as the Xinhai Revolution or Hsinhai Revolution, ended China's last imperial dynasty, the Qing dynasty, and led to the establishment of the Republic of China (ROC). The revolution was the culmination of a decade ...

. In 1915, he took

's orders and signed the infamous "

Twenty-One Demands The Twenty-One Demands (; ) was a set of demands made during the World War I, First World War by the Empire of Japan under Prime Minister of Japan, Prime Minister Ōkuma Shigenobu to the Government of the Chinese Republic, government of the Re ...

" treaty with Japan. He later became the leader of the New Communications Clique. Cao Rulin was part of the Chinese envoy attending the Paris Peace Conference. At the conference many former German concessions in China were handed to Japan instead of back to China. This caused a great deal of unrest in China resulting in a student demonstration on May 4, 1919 outside

Tiananmen The Tiananmen , also Tian'anmen, is the entrance gate of the Forbidden City imperial palace complex and Imperial City in the center of Beijing, China. It is widely used as a national symbol. First built in 1420 during the Ming dynasty, Ti ...

. This was the beginning of the

May Fourth Movement The May Fourth Movement was a Chinese cultural and anti-imperialist political movement which grew out of student protests in Beijing on May 4, 1919. Students gathered in front of Tiananmen to protest the Chinese government's weak response ...

. The demonstration shifted and Cao Rulin's house, at 3 Front Zhaojialou Lane in the East City District, was burned down. Cao was helped to escape by his friend, Nakae Ushikichi, son of Nakae Chōmin.

External links

Front Zhaojialou Lane

Tsao Ju-ling (Cao Rulin) 曹汝霖
from ''Biographies of Prominent Chinese'' c.1925. {{DEFAULTSORT:Cao Rulin Republic of China politicians from Shanghai 1966 deaths 1877 births Progressive Party (China) politicians Place of birth missing Date of death missing Place of death missing Taiwanese people from Shanghai Chinese Civil War refugees Politicians from Detroit Chinese emigrants to the United States Chinese people of World War I

See also

External links