Xie Jishi 謝介石 |
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Xie Jishi as a member of the Manchukuo Cabinet
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Born | 1878 Hsinchu, Taiwan |
Died | 1946 Beijing, China |
Other names | Hsieh Kai-shek |
Citizenship | Manchukuo |
Occupation | Cabinet Minister |
Xie Jishi (also transliterated as Hsieh Kai-shek; Chinese: 謝介石; pinyin: Xiè Jièshí; Wade–Giles: Hsieh4 Chi4-shih2; Hepburn: Sha Kaiseki; 1878–1946) was a cabinet minister in the Japanese-dominated Empire of Manchukuo, who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Xie Jishi was born in Hsinchu, Qing-era Taiwan in 1878, and attended the Japanese-run Shinchiku Kokugo Denshujo, where he studied the Japanese language. He served as interpreter for Japanese Prime Minister Itō Hirobumi on his visit to Taiwan, by then under Japanese rule. Itō was so impressed with the young Xie that he recommended him for a scholarship to Meiji University in Tokyo, from which he graduated from the law school.
Following the Xinhai Revolution, Xie travelled to China in 1913 and served as secretary-general to General Zhang Xun in Tianjin in 1913. He renounced his Japanese citizenship for citizenship in the Republic of China in 1915. He participated in Zhang Xun’s brief restoration to power of the dethroned Emperor Puyi in 1917, and was Assistant Officer for Foreign Affairs during the brief imperial government. After Puyi was again deposed, Xie remained a strong supporter for the restoration of the Qing dynasty, and accompanied Puyi in exile from the Forbidden City in Beijing to the foreign concession in Tianjin in 1927.