Chen Gongbo Chen Gongbo ( ; Wade - Giles : Ch ' en Kung - po , October 19 , 1892 - June 3 , 1946 ) was a Chinese politician , noted for his role as second ( and final ) President of the collaborationist pro - Japanese Nanjing Nationalist Government during World War II . Biography . Chen Gongbo was born in Guangzhou ( Canton ) , Qing Empire in 1892 . His father was an official in the Qing Dynasty administration . As a student at Beijing University , he participated in the May Fourth Movement and studied Marxism under Chen Duxiu . Chen Gongbo was one of the founders of the Chinese Communist Party and a member of its First Congress in Shanghai in July 1921 , but left the party the following year . He then moved to the United States , where he obtained a master ’ s degree in Economics at Columbia University in 1925 . On his return to China , he joined the Kuomintang ( KMT ) and was named head of the Department of Peasants and Workers under Liao Zhongkai , and was considered a member of the KMT leftist clique together with Wang Jingwei , with whom he developed a close political and personal relationship . Although he played a significant role under Chiang Kai - shek ’ s Northern Expedition , he strongly opposed Chiang and sided with Wang in political rivalry as Chiang began to exercise dictatorial power . He felt it particularly unfair for Chiang to replace Wang in KMT leadership through a military coup in 1926 . However , during a period of Chiang - Wang cooperation , he was named Minister of Industry by the Kuomintang government in 1932 - 36 . Some of the fundamental national economic policies he helped set in this period remained in practice under various Chinese political regimes until the 1970s . As director of the Kuomintang Sichuan branch , he helped organize the evacuation of the Kuomintang government to Chongqing after the start of the Second Sino - Japanese War . However , Chen remained politically aloof to Chiang Kai - shek and after Wang Jingwei broke ranks with the Kuomintang and established the collaborationist Nanjing Nationalist Government , Chen soon followed despite his initial opposition . Within the new government , Chen became the speaker of the Legislative Yuan . After nominal rule over Shanghai was turned over to the Nanjing Nationalist Government by Japan in November 1940 , Chen was appointed mayor . In mid - 1944 , when Wang traveled to Japan for medical treatment , Chen was left in charge as acting president of the Executive Yuan , becoming president of the Nanjing Nationalist government on Wang ’ s death in November 1944 . At the end of World War II , Chen fled to Japan and , immediately following Japan ’ s formal surrender on September 9 , 1945 , China ’ s representative General He Yingqin asked Japan ’ s representative , General Okamura Yasuji , to extradite Chen Gongbo to China for trial for treason . The request was granted by the American occupation forces , and Chen was escorted back to China on October 3 . At his trial , he defended himself vigorously . As President , he had refused to cooperate with the Japanese in several significant matters and had acted only because of his loyalty to his friend , Wang Jingwei . As he was sentenced to death as a traitor , he took his fate calmly saying that " Soon , I will be reunited with Wang Jingwei in the next world " . Chen was executed by a firing squad at Suzhou , Jiangsu on June 3 , 1946 . Blog of Kan Chen , son of Chen Gongbo : https : / / sites . google . com / site / kanblog8 / home