Wei Tao-ming

Wei Tao-ming was born in Jiujiang, Jiangxi province in 1899. His father, Wei Tiao-yuan, was an educator and member of Sun Yat-sen's revolutionary movement. Wei Tao-ming's early schooling was at a missionary school, though he graduated from Kiangsi (Jiangxi) First Middle School in 1918. He then studied French in Beijing for a year before moving to France in 1919. He obtained his doctorate in law from the University of Paris in 1926 and returned to China to pursue a legal career in Shanghai.[1]

He was married to Zheng Yuxiu, the first female lawyer and judge in Chinese history. She earned her doctoral degree in law at the Sorbonne in France and was the first Chinese person to practice law at the French extraterritorial courts in Shanghai. Zheng was also one of the revolutionaries involved in the attempted assassination of military official and politician Yuan Shikai, commonly reviled in Chinese history for taking advantage of both the Qing imperial court and the Republicans. She advocated women having their own voices and choices in marriage, and wrote it into the Republic of China's law. Her autobiography, My Revolutionary Years (1944), was published while her husband was Ambassador to the United States, and is revered as one of the best first hand accounts of modern Chinese history.

Wei Tao-ming

He became involved with the Kuomintang. At the age of 29, Wei became president of the Judicial Yuan. From 1930 to 1931, Wei served as mayor of special municipality of Nanjing, then capital of the Republic of China.

Wei was among the Nationalist government insiders implicated in corruption during the 1942-1943 American Dollar Bond scandal.[2]^: 73 After the 1941 Japanese declaration of war against the United States and the United Kingdom, the two allies sought to support China in a concrete way despite logistical limitations following the loss of British Burma.[2]^: 73 The two countries loaned significant amounts of money to the Nationalist government.[2]^: 73 The Nationalist government decided to use USD$200 million to absorb excess fabi in an effort to curb inflation.[2]^: 73 In theory, Chinese purchasers would use fabi to buy bonds at the official exchange rate and be paid in dollars when the bonds were redeemed following victory over Japan.[2]^: 73 The American Dollar Bonds were issued on March 24, 1942.[2]^: 73 The public response was poor, with few bond sales.[2]^: 74 In October 1943, H.H. Kung sent a secret memorandum to Chiang Kai-shek asking that the bond sales end.[2]^: 74 Subscriptions were closed on October 15, 1943 and a central bank official falsely announced that all bonds had been sold.[2]^: 74 Secretly, insiders then purchased the remaining bonds using currency acquired on the black market.[2]^: 74 The result was a windfall for Nationalist government insiders including Wei, Kung, Long Yun, members of the Soong family, and others.[2]^: 74

As Ambassador to the United States from September 1942 to 1946, Wei helped secure American material and military support for the Republic of China as it resisted Japanese invasion and Communist insurgency. His public declarations were covered by the New York Times, and he accompanied Soong Mei-ling during her visits to Washington, D.C., and New York. He resigned from his post in October 1945, citing personal reasons, and was succeeded by Wellington Koo, then Ambassador to the Court of St. James.

Wei's wife Zheng Yuxiu christened the SS China Victory in 1944. The Ceremony had both an ancient Chinese invocation to the sea gods and the traditional American tradition of a bottle of champagne breaking. The matron of honor at the launching was Mrs. T. K. Chang, wife of the Chinese consul at Los Angeles. SS China Victory was the first of a long line of Victory ships to leave the Calship building.

During his tenure as Governor of Taiwan Province, Wei created the Departments of Civil Affairs (民政廳), Finance (財政廳), Construction (建設廳), and Education (教育廳). He also employed thirteen members on the provincial board (省政委員), including those who were Taiwanese-born. He became the minister of foreign affairs after being the Governor (position succeeded by Chen Tsyr-shiou).

After the Chinese Communist Revolution, Wei spent some time in Hong Kong, then made his way back to Taiwan.

Wei served as foreign minister of the Republic of China during the 1960s and was active in maintaining U.S. support for Taipei. He also maintained a coalition in the United Nations General Assembly to reject membership for the People's Republic of China. He resigned due to health reasons in 1971 as Beijing's campaign to oust the ROC from the United Nations was on the verge of succeeding.

He died in Taipei on May 18, 1978, at the age 79.

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