Fu Bingchang

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Fu Bingchang (Chinese: 傅秉常; 1895-1965, aged 70; known as Foo Ping-sheung) was a diplomat and politician in the early Republic of China and later in Taiwan.

Fu was born to a comfortably well off family in Foshan, Guangdong. At the age of ten, he was sent to St. Stephen’s College in Hong Kong, and then trained as a civil engineer at Hong Kong University.

Politics

Fu quickly turned to political service for his uncle by marriage, Wu Tingfang, then was an attache for the Canton Delegation of the Paris Peace Conference. He became secretary to Sun Yatsen, an experience which led to his becoming Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Nationalist Government 1927. As a prominent member of the Prince’s Clique (Taizi pai), a political network headed by Sun Ke, the son of Sun Yatsen, Fu held various positions in the Foreign Ministry, then became a member of the Central Executive Committee in 1935. He was Republic of China's Ambassador to the U.S.S.R. from 1943 to 1949.

Semi retirement and later years

Fu retired to Paris and lived there from 1949 to 1956. Fu then returned to work for Chiang Kai-shek as President of the Anti-Corruption Board and Vice President of the Judicial Yuan in Taiwan until 1965. Fu died in Taiwan in 1965.

For much of his life, Fu was an avid amateur photographer. His informal photos of leading politicians and their families are now collected and available online.

Bibliography

羅香林, 傅秉常与近代中国 (1975) (Luo Xianglin, Fu Bingchang and modern China)

傅秉常先生訪問紀錄 (The Reminiscences of Mr. Fu Ping Chang) (中央研究院近代史研究所, Academia Sinica, Institute of Modern History, Oral History Series No. 45, 1993)

蒋介石最后一任驻苏大使傅秉常在苏联的日子 'Fu Bingchang: Chiang Kai-shek’s last Ambassador to Soviet Russia', (2007) Republican Archives, Issue 4, pp: 55-60. ISSN 1000-4491.

Yee-Wah Foo (ed.) Chiang Kaishek’s Last Ambassador to Moscow, The Wartime Diaries of Fu Bingchang (2011) Palgrave Macmillan., ISBN 978-0-230-58477-8

External links

Fu Bingchang Collection Historical Photographs of China Robert Bickers, Director.