Kung Hsiang-hsi (H. H. Kung) |
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Premier of the Republic of China | |
In office 1 January 1938 – 11 December 1939 |
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President | Lin Sen |
Preceded by | Chiang Kai-shek |
Succeeded by | Chiang Kai-shek |
Personal details | |
Born |
Taigu, Shanxi, Qing Empire |
11 September 1881
Died | 16 August 1967 Locust Valley, New York, United States |
(aged 85)
Nationality | Republic of China |
Political party | Kuomintang |
Spouse(s) | Han Yu-mei Soong Ai-ling |
Alma mater | Oberlin College |
Religion | Christianity |
Kung Hsiang-hsi (Chinese: 孔祥熙; pinyin: Kǒng Xiángxī; Wade–Giles: K'ung3 Hsiang2-hsi1; September 11, 1881 – August 16, 1967), often known as Dr. H. H. Kung, was a Chinese banker and politician in the early 20th century. He married Soong Ai-ling, the eldest of the three Soong sisters; the other two married Sun Yat-sen and Chiang Kai-shek. Together with his brother-in-law, Soong Tse-ven, he was highly influential in determining the economic policies of the Kuomintang-led Nationalist government in the 1930s and 1940s.
Kung was born during the late Qing dynasty into a prosperous banking and trading family in Taigu County, Shanxi Province, where he attended a mission school in spite of his family's doubts. He then attended North China Union College in Tongzhou, near Beijing, where he took courses in mathematics, physics and chemistry, subjects which were not offered in traditional Chinese schools. Upon hearing of the Boxer attacks, he returned to Taigu, but his family prevented him from leaving the house. After the Taiyuan Massacre, which included members of the Oberlin Band, he carried letters from several of the murdered missionaries to Beijing by hiding them between the layers of his cloth shoes. Returning to Taigu, by using the powers of the Boxer Indemnity, he distributed relief to the families of those killed, buried the dead, and confiscated the estate of a family which had supported the Boxers.