'Tse-ven Soong', or 'Soong Tzu-wen' (;
1894 –
1971), a prominent businessman and politician in the early
20th century Republic of China, had
Charlie Soong as a father and the
Soong sisters as siblings. His Christian name was Paul.
Born in
Shanghai, T. V. Soong received his education at
Harvard University and returned to
China to engage in private
business. In the
Kuomintang-controlled government he served as governor of the
Central Bank of China and
minister of finance (
1928 -
1931,
1932 -
1933); minister of foreign affairs (
1942 -
1945); and
president of the Executive Yuan (
1945 -
1947). Soong left his legacy as head of the Chinese delegation to the United Nations Conference on International Organization in San Francisco, April 1945 which later became the United Nations.
During the war years, he financed the "
Flying Tigers" -- the American Voluntary Group that later was incorporated into the U.S. Air Force. Check background on Gen. Claire Chennault and you will find that he was listed as an employee of Bank of China. On this project he worked very closely with Mdme Chiang Kai-Shek.
With the defeat of the Nationalists in the
Chinese Civil War, he moved to
New York and lived there until his death at the age of 77. Soong had a stroke and died in San Francisco while on business in April, 1971.
Soong was married to
Chang Yüeh-ch'ia (張樂恰 Zhang Yueqia).
Further reading
★ Seagrave, Sterling. ''The Soong Dynasty'': 1996, Corgi Books, ISBN 0-552-14108-9
See also:
History of the Republic of China