Wang Jinrei

==Early life==
Wang was born in Gaoqiao, a small town east of Shanghai, during the reign of the Guangxu Emperor in the late Qing Dynasty. His family moved to Shanghai in 1889, a year after his birth. By the time he reached nine years old, Wang had lost his immediate family - his mother died in childbirth, his sister was sold into slavery, his father died, and his stepmother vanished - so he went back to Gaoqiao and lived with his grandmother. He returned to Shanghai in 1902 and worked at a fruit stall in the French Concession but was later fired for theft. He wandered around for a period of time before becoming a bodyguard in a brothel, where he became acquainted with the Green Gang, an influential triad in Shanghai. He joined the gang at the age of 16.
==Rise to power==
Wang was soon introduced by a friend to Huang Jinrong (黃金榮), the highest-ranked Chinese detective in the French Concession Police (FCP) and one of Shanghai's most notorious gangsters. Huang's wife was a notable criminal in her own right, and she favoured the young Wang. Even though Huang was not a member of the Green Gang, Wang became Huang's gambling and opium enforcer. A stickler for fine clothing and women, Wang was now cemented; he wore only Chinese silks (a superstitious streak meant he also had three small monkey heads, especially imported from Hong Kong, sewn to his clothes at the small of his back), surrounded himself with White Russian bodyguards, and frequented the city's best nightclubs and sing-song houses. Wang's prestige led him to purchase a four-storey, Western-style mansion in the French Concession and entertain dozens of concubines, four legal wives and six sons, but his meteoric rise as Shanghai's most famous mobster only came after Huang Jinrong was arrested in 1924 by the Shanghai Garrison police. Huang had publicly beaten the son of Shanghai's current warlord, and his arrest required Wang's diplomacy and finances to get him released. He stood down almost immediately after his release, turning his criminal empire over to Wang, who became known as the "zongshi" (宗師) or "grandmaster" of the criminal underworld. Wang now controlled gambling dens, prostitution and protection rackets, as well as setting up a number of legitimate companies - including Shanghai's largest shipping corporation and two banks. With the tacit support of the police and colonial government, he also now ran the French Concession's opium trade, and became heavily addicted to his own drug.  In contrast to his views on legality, Wang was politically a staunch Confucian conservative. He had close ties with Chiang Kai-shek, who in turn had ties to both the Green Gang and other organised secret societies from his early years in Shanghai. Chiang forged political alliances throughout the 1920s, with some of the secret societies going as far as to offer their support in the 1927 Shanghai Purge. The resulting massacre ended the First United Front, and as a reward for Wang's service, Chiang appointed him as president of the National Board of Opium Suppression Bureau. The end result was that Wang came to officially control the entirety of China's opium trade. The Green Gang's support for the Nationalist Government included funding and equipment, even going as far as to purchase a German Junkers 87 emblazoned with the Board of Opium Suppression Bureau logo. In return, Wang was given leeway to run labour unions and keep business flowing freely. In 1936, Wang had the financial and political clout to open his own temple - one dedicated to his ancestors and family members - and hold a three day long party to honour its grand opening. It was one of Shanghai's largest celebrations, with hundreds of celebrities and political figures attending. Within months of its opening, however, the temple's private wings had been turned over to the manufacture of heroin, making it Shanghai's largest drug factory. When the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out a year later, Wang offered to fight the Japanese by scuttling his fleet of ships at the mouth of the Yangtze River, but he eventually fled to Hong Kong and later to Chongqing. Green Gang operatives cooperating with Major-General Dai Li, Chiang's intelligence chief, continued to smuggle weapons and goods to the Kuomintang throughout the war, and Wang himself was a board member of the Chinese Red Cross. Following Japan's surrender in 1945, Wang returned to Shanghai, expecting a warm welcome but was shocked when he was not received like a hero. Many Shanghai residents felt that Wang had abandoned the city, leaving its civilians to suffer under the atrocities of the Japanese occupation. The relationship between Wang and Chiang Kai-shek soured further after World War II, when corruption and crime committed by top-ranking politicians and gangsters caused great problems within the Kuomintang. Chiang Kai-shek's son, Chiang Ching-kuo, launched an anti-corruption campaign in Shanghai in the late 1940s, with Wang's relatives among the first to be arrested and thrown into jail. Although Wang successfully managed their release by threatening to expose the embezzlement activities done by Chiang's relatives, the arrest and imprisonment of Wang's sons effectively ended the partnership between Chiang and Wang. Wang then plotted to leave but couldn't bring himself to desert his people again as the Chinese Civil War broke out while he was still a military leader. Wang's forces (500,000 men) controlled the critically important Suiyuan-Peiping Corridor that separated Manchuria from China proper. After the Communists captured the Manchurian provinces in late 1948, Communists infiltrated Fu's inner circle and pressured Wang to negotiate a peaceful solution for the inevitable Communist take over. At the same time, Wang became increasingly disillusioned with Chiang. Wang's personal estrangement from Chiang reaching a climax in October 1948, when Chiang suddenly withdrew from a critical meeting to discuss the defense of territory under Wangs's command without giving any immediate explanation. Chiang's sudden departure was a great blow to Nationalist morale and left an impression on Wang and many other Nationalist commanders that Chiang had placed the welfare of his family above the welfare of the nation. Communist agents active within Wang's inner circle included Wang's own daughter, Dongju Wang (傅冬菊), and Wang's most trusted personal secretary, Major General Yan Youwen (閻又文). Dongju, Yan Youwen, and other agents pressured Wang to surrender and repeatedly passed vital intelligence to the Communists. Wang began secret negotiations with Lin Biao, in which he arranged the surrender of the Beiping garrison, totaling a quarter of a million men, on January 31, 1949. Yan Youwen acted as Wang's representative during Wang's communication with Lin, but Wang did not know the true allegiance of Yan until after the establishment of the People's Republic of China. Once discoved Wang killed Yan and Wang escaped to Hong Kong.  Wang decided it was safe to move back to China two years later thinking that he ha faded out of memory, but was captured instead and given to the Americans as a sign of peace. Wang was personally haned over to the American occupation authorities by his own daughter who gave him a book written by Sun Lu-t'ang.