Wellington Koo

V. K. Wellington Koo
V.K. Wellington Koo in 1945
Premier of the Republic of China
In office 2 July 1924 – 14 September 1924
President	Cao Kun
Preceded by	Sun Baoqi
Succeeded by	Yan Huiqing
In office 1 October 1926 – 16 June 1927
Preceded by	Du Xigui
Succeeded by	Hu Weide
President of the Republic of China Interim
In office 1 October 1926 – 16 June 1927
Preceded by	Du Xigui (Acting)
Succeeded by	Zhang Zuolin
Ambassador of the Republic of China to the United States
In office 27 June 1946 – 1956
Preceded by	Wei Daoming
Succeeded by	Dong Xiangguang
Personal details
Born	(1888-01-29)29 January 1888 Shanghai, Qing China
Died	14 November 1985(1985-11-14) (aged 97) New York City, New York, United States
Nationality	Chinese
Spouse(s)	Zhang Run'e (m. 1908) Tang Baoyue (m. 1913–1918) Oei Hui-lan (m. 1920–1985) Juliana Yen (m. 1959–1985)
Children	Gu Dechang, Gu Juzhen, Gu Yuchang, Gu Fuchang
Alma mater	Columbia University
Occupation	Diplomat, politician

V. K. Wellington Koo (29 January 1888 – 14 November 1985), whose Chinese name is variously romanized as Koo Vi Kyuin, Ku Wei-chün, and Gu Weijun, was a Chinese diplomat from the Republic of China. He was one of China's representatives at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919; served as an Ambassador to France, Great Britain and the United States; was a participant in the founding of the League of Nations and the United Nations; and sat as a judge on the International Court of Justice in The Hague from 1957 to 1967. Between October 1926 and June 1927, while serving as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Koo briefly held the concurrent positions of acting Premier and interim President of the Republic of China.^[1] Koo was the first and only Chinese head of state known to use a Western name publicly.

Life and career

Born in Shanghai in 1887, Koo attended Saint John's University, Shanghai, and Columbia College, where he was a member of the Philolexian Society, a literary and debating club, and graduated in 1908. In 1912 he received his Ph.D. in international law and diplomacy from Columbia University.^[1]

Koo returned to China in 1912 to serve the new Republic of China as English Secretary to President Yuan Shikai. In 1915, Koo was made China's Minister to the United States and Cuba. In 1919, he was a member of the Chinese delegation to the Paris Peace Conference, led by Foreign Minister Lu Zhengxiang (Lou Tseng-Tsiang). Before the Western powers and Japan, he demanded that Japan return Shandong to China. He also called for an end to imperialist institutions such as extraterritoriality, tariff controls, legation guards, and lease holds. The Western powers refused his claims and, consequently, the Chinese delegation at the Paris Peace Conference was the only nation that did not sign the Treaty of Versailles at the signing ceremony.

Koo also was involved in the formation of the League of Nations as China's first representative to the newly formed League. From 1922, Koo served successively as Foreign Minister and Finance Minister. He was twice Acting Premier, in 1924 and again in 1926 during a period of chaos in Beijing under Zhang Zuolin in 1926-7. Koo was Acting Premier from 1 October 1926 and acted concurrently as Interim President. He served as Premier from January until June 1927, when Zhang organised a military government and Koo resigned. After the Northern Expedition toppled the government in Beijing in 1928, he was briefly wanted for arrest by the new Nationalist government in Nanjing, but through Zhang Xueliang's mediation he was reconciled with the new government and returned to the diplomatic service. He represented China at the League of Nations to protest the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. He served as the Chinese Ambassador to France from 1936–1940, until France was occupied by Germany. Afterwards, he was the Chinese Ambassador to the Court of St James's until 1946. In 1945, Koo was one of the founding delegates of the United Nations. He later became the Chinese Ambassador to the United States and focused in maintaining the alliance between the Republic of China and the United States as the Kuomintang began losing to the Communists and had to retreat to Taiwan.^[2]

Koo retired from the Chinese diplomatic service in 1956. In 1956 he became a judge of the International Court of Justice in The Hague and served as Vice-President of the Court during the final three years of his term. In 1967, he retired and moved to New York City, where he lived until his death in 1985.^[1]

Personal life

In 1908, Koo married his first wife, Chang Jun-e (simplified Chinese: 张润娥; traditional Chinese: 張潤娥; pinyin: Zhāng Rùn'é). They divorced prior to 1912.^[3]

Koo's second wife, Tang Pao-yu "May" (simplified Chinese: 唐宝玥; traditional Chinese: 唐寶玥; pinyin: Táng Bǎoyuè; c. 1895–1918), was the youngest daughter of the former Chinese prime minister Tang Shaoyi and a first cousin of the painter and actress Mai-Mai Sze.^[4][5][6] Their marriage took place soon after Koo's return to China in 1912. She died in an influenza epidemic in 1918.^[7] They had two children: a son, Teh-chang Koo (1916–1998),^[8] and a daughter, Patricia Koo (b. 1918).

Koo's third wife was Oei Hui-lan (simplified Chinese: 黄蕙兰; traditional Chinese: 黃蕙蘭; pinyin: Huáng Huìlán; 1899–1992).^[9][10][11] She married Koo in Brussels, Belgium in 1921.^[12][10] (She was reportedly previously the wife of Count Wittingham or of Count Hoey Stoker.)^[13][14][15] Much admired for her adaptations of traditional Manchu fashion, which she wore with lace trousers and jade necklaces,^[12] Oei Hui-lan was one of the 42 acknowledged children of the Peranakan Chinese sugar magnate Oei Tiong Ham.^[16] She wrote two memoirs: Hui-Lan Koo (Mrs. Wellington Koo): An Autobiography (written with Mary Van Rensselaer Thayer, Dial Press, 1945)^[17][18] and No Feast Lasts Forever (written with Isabella Taves, Quadrangle/The New York Times, 1975).^[19] Koo had two sons with her: Yu-chang Koo (1922–1975, also Wellington Koo, Jr.) and Fu-chang Koo (1923–1977, a.k.a. Freeman Koo).^[20][21]

On 3 September 1959, Koo married his fourth wife Yen Yu-ying (a.k.a. Juliana Yen / Juliana Koo; simplified Chinese: 严幼韵; traditional Chinese: 嚴幼韵; pinyin: Yán Yòuyùn; b. 1905),^[22] the widow of Clarence Kuangson Young.^[23][24] He had three stepdaughters from this marriage: Genevieve (wife of American photographer and film director Gordon Parks), Shirley and Frances Loretta Young.^[7][25]

Death

Koo lived long enough to see two of his sons die before him. He died surrounded by his family in the night of November 14, 1985, at the age of 97. Wellington Koo was survived by his fourth wife, two children, nineteen grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.^[26]

References

Sources

• Chervin, Reed H. "Turmoil in the Taiwan Strait: Wellington Koo and ROC Foreign Policy 1953-1956." East Asia: An International Quarterly, 2013, Vol 4 pp. 291–306.
• Clements, Jonathan. Makers of the Modern World: Wellington Koo. London: Haus Publishing, 2008.
• Craft, Stephen G. V.K. Wellington Koo and the Emergence of Modern China. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2004.
• Hui-lan Oei Koo, with Mary Van Rensselaer Thayer, Hui-Lan Koo: An Autobiography New York: Dial Press, 1943.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Wellington Koo.

• Biography at Columbia
• Funny anecdote at the Wayback Machine (archived 25 January 2008)
• A film clip "Longines Chronoscope with V.K. Wellington Koo" is available at the Internet Archive
• A film clip "Longines Chronoscope with Dr. V.K. Wellington Koo (26 May 1952)" is available at the Internet Archive
• V.K. Wellington Koo (Gu Weijun) 顾维钧 from Biographies of Prominent Chinese c.1925.

Heads of government of the Republic of China
Premiers of Cabinet	Tang Shaoyi Lou Tseng-Tsiang Zhao Bingjun Duan Qirui* Xiong Xiling Sun Baoqi*
Secretaries of State	Xu Shichang Lou Tseng-Tsiang*
Premiers of State Council	Duan Qirui Wu Tingfang* Li Jingxi
Prime Minister of Restored Qing Imperial Government	Zhang Xun（under restored monarchy）
Premiers of State Council	Duan Qirui Wang Daxie* Wang Shizhen* Qian Nengxun* Gong Xinzhan* Jin Yunpeng Sa Zhenbing Yan Huiqing* Liang Shiyi Zhou Ziqi* Wang Chonghui* Wang Zhengting* Zhang Shaozeng Gao Lingwei Sun Baoqi Wellington Koo Vi-kyuin* Huang Fu* Xu Shiying Jia Deyao* Hu Weide* Du Xigui* Pan Fu
Presidents of Executive Yuan	Tan Yankai T. V. Soong Tse-ven Chiang Kai-shek Chen Mingshu Sun Fo Wang Jingwei H. H. Kung Hsiang-hsi Chang Ch'ün Weng Wenhao Sun Fo He Yingqin Yan Xishan Chen Cheng Yu Hung-Chun Yen Chia-kan Chiang Ching-kuo Sun Yun-suan Yu Kuo-hwa Lee Huan Hau Pei-tsun Lien Chan Vincent Siew Wan-chang Tang Fei Chang Chun-hsiung Yu Shyi-kun Frank Hsieh Chang-ting Su Tseng-chang Liu Chao-shiuan Wu Den-yih Sean Chen Jiang Yi-huah Mao Chi-kuo Chang San-cheng Lin Chuan
*acting

China's Ambassadors to the U.S.
Qing ministers to the U.S. 1875–1912	Chen Lanbin 1875–81 Zheng Zaoru 1881–85 Zhang Yinheng 1885–89 Cui Guoyin 1889–93 Yang Ru 1893–96 Wu Tingfang 1896–1902 Liang Cheng 1902–07 Wu Tingfang 1907–09 Zhang Yintang 1909–11 Alfred Sao-ke Sze 1911–12
ROC's envoys to the U.S. 1912–35	Zhang Yintang 1912–13 Xia Xiefu 1913–15 V. K. Wellington Koo 1915–20 Alfred Sao-ke Sze 1920–29 Wu Chaoshu 1929–31 Yan Huiqing 1931–33 Alfred Sao-ke Sze 1933–35
ROC's ambassadors to the U.S. 1935–79	Alfred Sao-ke Sze 1935–36 Wang Zhengting 1936–38 Hu Shih 1938–42 Wei Tao-ming 1942–46 Wellington Koo 1946–56 Hollington Tong 1956–58 George Yeh 1958–61 Tsiang Tingfu 1961–65 Zhou Shukai 1965–71 James Shen 1971–79
ROC's representatives to the U.S. 1979–present	Konsin Shah 1979–81 Cai Weiping 1981–82 Frederick Chien 1982–88 Ting Mao-shih 1988–94 Benjamin Lu 1994–96 Jason Hu 1996–97 Stephen S.F. Chen 1997–2000 Chen Chien-jen 2000–04 David Lee 2004–07 Joseph Wu 2007–08 Jason Yuan 2008–12 King Pu-tsung 2012–14 Shen Lyu-shun 2014–2016 Stanley Kao 2016–
Chiefs of the PRC Liaison Office in the U.S. 1973–79	Huang Zhen 1973–77 Chai Zemin 1978–79
PRC's ambassadors to the U.S. 1979–present	Chai Zemin 1979–82 Zhang Wenjin 1983–85 Han Xu 1985–89 Zhu Qizhen 1989–93 Li Daoyu 1993–98 Li Zhaoxing 1998–2001 Yang Jiechi 2001–05 Zhou Wenzhong 2005–10 Zhang Yesui 2010–13 Cui Tiankai 2013–present