The diplomatic wizard in the chaotic world - Gu Weijun,
Once a beautiful man of the Republic of China! Madly pursued by women,
Gu Weijun was born on January 29, 1888, a modern Chinese politician, activist and diplomat, and the thirteenth head of state of the Beiyang government.
After returning to Japan in 1912, he served as secretary to the president of the cabinet, adviser to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and member of the Constitution Drafting Committee. Since 1915, he has successively served as minister of the Beiyang government in Mexico, the United States, Cuba, the United Kingdom, and vice president of the International Court of Justice in The Hague, and in 1919 and 1921, Gu Weijun was a member of the Chinese delegation at the Paris Peace Conference and the Washington Conference, contributing to the protection of the rights and interests of the Chinese nation
Gu Weijun was known as the "first diplomat" of the Republic of China At the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, he attended the Paris Peace Conference as a member of the Chinese delegation, where he argued on the sovereignty of Shandong
On November 11, 1918, the dust of the First World War was finally settled, Germany was defeated, and representatives of the participating countries would hold a peace conference at the Palace of Versailles in Paris, France. The peace conference was a peace conference held by the victorious countries, but in essence it was a peace conference presided over by the major powers, and although the allies with weak national strength at that time, as the victorious side, were invited to join, the defeated countries such as Germany and the Soviet Russia that withdrew from the first world war were excluded from the meeting.
It seems that the participating countries agreed on the world pattern after World War I on an equal footing, but the entire peace conference was actually led by then US President Wilson, British Prime Minister Lloyd Georges, and French Prime Minister Clemenceau.
At that time, China, which was weak in strength, could only seek survival in the cracks of the great power struggle for power and profit, but the decadent Beiyang government had already secretly surrendered to the great powers, and the weakness and decay of capitalism would eventually appear in this milestone shame
On December 4, 1918, on a ship bound for Paris, Gu Weijun, who was only 31 years old, was full of hopes for his countrymen. He will attend the Paris Peace Conference as plenipotentiary representative of the victorious Power China——— mainly responsible for negotiating the terms of peace for the armistice between Germany and its allies.
However, the waves of history are turbulent, the wind direction of the times is unpredictable, and the sailing ships carrying the national fortune will be deviated by personal will, and they will be repeatedly frustrated during the peace conference.
His delegation had received a sudden notification that the five seats originally intended for China had been reduced to two. This means that China's right to speak will be squeezed. Thanks to the repeated efforts of the members of the delegation, the organizers allowed the Chinese representative members to take turns in the two seats.
However, these two crucial seats must be selected from the original five people who can sit in the two people who can sit in the office, which also involves the dispute over the diplomatic leadership of the Chinese northern and southern regimes, and after several twists and turns, it is finally determined that Lu Zhengxiang, the chief foreign minister, will be the first seat, and the experienced diplomat Gu Weijun will be the second seat, and these two people are also crucial core figures in this meeting.
Having finally put the general in order, my delegation formally submitted to the delegates to the peace conference a series of applications for the repossession of the unequal treaties on the restoration of the national territory. However, apart from the abolition of Theo-Austrian privileges, which were largely accepted because of their relevance to the defeated countries, the question of Germany in Shandong and the abolition of the privileges of the great powers in China were dismissed one by one. At this time, the Shandong issue became the focus of controversy. China's biggest obstacle to this issue is Japan, which has de facto control over Shandong
It turned out that in 1918, Duan Qirui, who had exhausted his financial resources due to the Southern Expedition and the Northern War, accepted the kind assistance of the Japanese Cabinet Terauchi Masayoshi in order to make up for the financial deficit, at the cost of this "Shandong Issue Exchange". The document effectively means that the Chinese government recognizes Japan's interests in Shandong, which have even surpassed Germany to some extent.
It is precisely because of this official document that the Japanese representative Makino can brazenly ignore the demands of the Chinese representative and propose to fully accept Germany's rights and interests in Shandong. Gu Weijun's main task was to argue the legitimacy of China's recovery of Shandong, while the Japanese side emphasized the fact of the occupation of Shandong and exchanged letters with Duan Qirui's government, saying that the matter did not need to be bothered at the Paris Peace Conference.
At this time, seeing that China's demands could not be answered, and the appeal to the United States, Britain, and France was also sinking into the sea, the Chinese delegation fell into endless waiting and anxiety. On the one hand, the pressure on their own was on the one hand, and on the other hand, patriots at home and abroad who heard that our side had reached an impasse could not sit still, and they rushed from all directions to surround the Chinese embassy in Paris, shouting every day to meet with the representatives of the mission to protest.
In the face of such a dilemma, under the rapid fire attack, Lu Zhengxiang, who was not in good health himself, was gased into the hospital, and the rest of the burden mainly fell on Gu Weijun's shoulders.
At noon on January 27, 1919, Williams, an adviser to the American delegation, suddenly informed Gu Weijun that he had invited the Chinese delegation to attend the afternoon "Meeting of Ten".
Under the expectant eyes of everyone, Gu Weijun made a generous statement, which finally made the Western powers look at it with astonishment. A turnaround ensued...
At the official "Ten People's Meeting" on the 28th, the Shandong issue became the main and only topic.
On that day, Gu Weijun talked for more than half an hour without a speech. Shandong is the cradle of Chinese culture, China's sage Confucius Mencius was born in this land, Confucius is like the Jesus of the West, Shandong is China, whether from the economic or strategic aspects, as well as religious culture, China can not lose Shandong, just like the West can not lose Jerusalem, this fierce speech, sensationalized the whole paris and even Europe, became a good story of China's diplomacy