Wang Kemin Wang Kemin ( ; Wade - Giles : Wang K ' o - min , May 4 , 1879 - December 25 , 1945 ) was a leading official in the Chinese republican movement and early Beiyang government , later noted for his role as in the collaborationist Provisional Government of the Republic of China and Nanjing Nationalist Government during World War II . Biography . Wang was a native of Hangzhou in Zhejiang province . In 1901 , he was dispatched by the government of Qing Dynasty China to Japan , where he studied western economics and accounting from his nominal position as attaché at the Chinese embassy in Tokyo . After his return to China in 1907 , he was appointed to a post under the Viceroy of Zhili to manage foreign affairs . After the Republic of China had been established , he was sent to France in 1913 . On his return , by orders of Duan Qirui he helped establish the Bank of China , and became its president from July 1917 . He served as minister of finance under the Beiyang Government from December 1917 to March 1918 . In December 1918 , he was the only representative of the Beiyang Government to attend a meeting with the Nanjing Government in an attempt to reunify China . He served as Minister of Finance again from July – August 1923 under the premiership of Gao Lingwei . However , Wang was strongly opposed by the Fengtian clique led by Zhang Zuolin , and forced to resign his post after only a week . He returned as Minister of Finance with the support of Cao Kun of the Zhili clique from November 1923 - October 1924 . During this time , he also oversaw the operations of a number of other banks , including the Bank of Tianjin . After the success of Chiang Kai - Shek ' s Northern Expedition a warrant for Wang ' s arrest was issued by the Kuomintang and he fled to Dalian in the Kwantung Leased Territory under Japanese jurisdiction . In 1931 , Wang Kemin returned to Beijing when Zhang Xueliang took control of Hebei Province , and took a post in the Peking Finance committee . He became mayor of Tianjin in 1932 . In 1935 Wang was in the Kuomintang Hebei Government and had a post in the Northeast Government Affairs Committee , and the Peking Government Affairs Committee and other important posts . However , he retired to Shanghai in 1935 . After the Second Sino - Japanese War broke out in 1937 , the Imperial Japanese Army quickly overran North China , and the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters authorized the creation of a collaborationist regime as part of its overall strategy to establish an autonomous buffer zone between China and Japanese - controlled Manchukuo . This government was based in Beijing , and proclaimed Wang Kemin accepted the post of President of the Provisional Government of the Republic of China , with its capital in Beijing on December 14 , 1937 . The government nominally controlled the provinces of Hebei , Shandong , Shanxi , Henan and Jiangsu . But its activities were carefully prescribed and overseen by advisors provided by the Japanese Northern China Area Army . The failure of the Japanese to give any real authority to the Provisional Government discredited it in the eyes of the local inhabitants , and made its existence of only limited propaganda utility to the Japanese authorities . The Provisional Government was , along with the Reformed Government of the Republic of China , merged into Wang Jingwei ' s Nanjing Nationalist Government on March 30 , 1940 , but in practical terms actually remained virtually independent under the name of the " North China Political Council " ( ) until the end of the war . Wang Kemin retained power as Chairman of the North China Political Council , as well as becoming Internal Affairs Minister in the Nanjing Nationalist Government . Wang was arrested by the government of the Republic of China after the surrender of Japan and tried for treason . He committed suicide before the conclusion of his trial on December 25 , 1945 . Notes .