Tuan Chi-Jui

Born 1864; died 1936. Chinese military and political figure: leader of the Anfu clique of militarists.

In 1912 Tuan Ch’i-jui became war minister in the government of Yuan Shih-k’ai, and from 1916 to 1918 he was premier. On Aug. 14, 1917, he announced China’s entry into World War I on the side of the Entente. In 1918 he signed a number of military accords with Japan directed against Soviet Russia, including one on the dispatch of Chinese troops to Siberia. In late 1918 he was forced to resign under pressure from the Western powers, who did not want Japanese influence in China to increase, and in 1920 he was banished from Peking by the Chihli clique of militarists. From 1924 to 1926 he was back in power as president and premier of the Chinese government. With the growth of a powerful revolutionary movement in the country, Tuan Ch’i-jui left political activity in the summer of 1926 as a result of setbacks in a power struggle with other northern militarists.