This bio was mostly written by me with some changes and edits by Mac Gregor, who has also approved of it.
Zhou Dewei (1892-1956)
Zhou Dewei, also known as Chou Dewei, was born on September 1, 1892 in Huai'an, Jiangsu province in the Qing Empire of China. He was the son of Zhou Duxiu (1874-1928), and his paternal grandfather was Zhou Junlong*. His family came from a long line of government clerks in the Qing Empire. He was not even eleven years-old when the Chinese Civil War broke out in February of 1903. Luckily, his family, who were staunch Qing loyalists, were sheltered from the fighting in their home in Huai'an. In 1906, his family moved to Peking in an effort to better assist the Imperial Qing government. After reaching adulthood, he was sent to be educated in the United States of America at California State University from 1910 to 1916 with concentrations in history, sociology, and English. While in the United States, he gained a great appreciation of the American government and culture. He also met with many members of the Chinese diaspora in cities such as San Francisco, Sacramento and San Diego. Due to the ongoing Chinese Civil War, Zhou, now a sympathizer of the Chinese republican government, decided to temporarily stay in the United States. For a number of years, he lived in California and served as a private tutor for Chinese-American families.
Having returned to China after the end of the civil war in October of 1921, Zhou swore allegiances to the Chinese republican government of President Chen Ching-Kuo (1866-1930). In 1922, Zhou wrote and published his first book, The Rise and Fall of the Qing Dynasty. The book was a detailed, if somewhat politicized, history of the Qing Dynasty and explained in detail why the dynasty collapsed. The book was an international success and was translated into numerous languages. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, Zhou wrote and published many more books, most of which were books on the history of China and other East Asian civilizations. By the mid-1930s, he had become a respected Chinese intellectual and political confidant to leaders in the republican government well-known for his strong nationalist views. His connections would eventually allow him to be appointed the head of the University of Peking from 1937 to 1942.
Starting in the early 1940s, Zhou became active in the militant Union of Chinese Patriots (UCP) political movement that promised national renewal. After retiring from the University of Peking, he was elected as a member of the Legislative Yuan in 1944 and quickly rose to become leader of the UCP. Nine years later, on September 19, 1953, the Union of Chinese Patriots took control of the government through elections widely deemed as fraudulent. Zhou Dewei was soon after installed as President of the Republic of China.
Zhou Dewei’s brief time as President of the Republic of China was mostly marked by the disastrous Second Sino-Japanese War (1953-1954). The UCP’s inexperience in running the unwieldy Chinese bureaucracy soon became apparent as the economic situation in China worsened and inflation soared. Many in the Chinese government, including President Zhou, tried to divert attention by blaming China’s woes on Japan, pointing to their occasional interdiction of Chinese commercial and fishing vessels. To prevent the further harassment of its merchant shipping the Chinese Navy dispatched the cruiser CNS
Yueh Fei to the Formosa Strait on November 23, 1953. On December 19, 1953, the
Yueh Fei strayed into Japanese territorial waters and was summarily sunk by Japanese aircraft based on Formosa, resulting in the death of 196 Chinese sailors. Amidst a national outrage, the Chinese government of President Zhou maintained that the
Yueh Fei was sailing in international waters when attacked. President Zhou then issued an ultimatum demanding that Japan not only apologize and pay for the damages but also publically renounce the use of Formosa as a naval and air base. When the ultimatum expired unanswered at midnight on December 27, 1953, the Republic of China declared war on the Empire of Japan. Fluent in English, Zhou was able to arrange a covert deal of dubious legality with the American government to procure much needed anti-aircraft batteries, an event eventually becoming known in the United States as the “Chinese Gun Scandal.” However, by the middle of 1954, the Republic of China was clearly losing the Second Sino-Japanese War, having suffered a string of defeats at the hands of the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy. After food riots broke out in Peking, on November 9, 1954, President Zhou signed a ceasefire with the Empire of Japan. Ten days after the signing of the ceasefire, on November 19, 1954, President Zhou was deposed in a coup by elements of the Chinese Republican Army led by General Zhang Kun (1899-1972). Barely escaping with his life, Zhou fled to British Hong Kong. After six months, Zhou quietly went into exile in San Francisco, California.
His stay in the United States would be short, when on September 29, 1956, Zhou was gunned down on the streets of Chinatown by a triad assassin believed to be in the pay of General Zhang’s government. After a private funeral, he was cremated and his ashes were spread over the Pacific Ocean. Zhou is mostly remembered today for his disastrous tenure as President of China. Many historians contend that Zhou, while a very intelligent man, lacked the executive experience to lead the Chinese nation and his weak grasp of military affairs ill-served China during its war with Japan.
*=The OTL grandfather of Zhou Enlai.
