Liao Chung-Kai

Born Apr. 23, 1877, in San Francisco; died Aug. 20, 1925, in Canton. Chinese revolutionary democrat, associate of Sun Yat-sen.

Liao Chung-k’ai joined the revolutionary movement in 1903 and became a member of the revolutionary T’ung Meng Hui organization in 1905. He was active in the bourgeois Hsinhai Revolution (1911-13), and after its defeat he emigrated to Japan, where he was one of the leaders of the Chinese revolutionary party Chunghua Komingtang. A member of Sun Yat-sen’s government in Canton in 1917-18 and 1921-22, he became the minister of finance of the Kwangtung revolutionary government in February 1923. In 1924 he helped create a united revolutionary front based on cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party.

At the First Congress of the Kuomintang in January 1924 he was elected to the Central Executive Committee and to the Standing Committee of the Kuomintang. He headed the workers’ and peasants’ departments of the Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang and also served as governor of Kwangtung Province. After Sun Yat-sen’s death in March 1925, Liao Chung-k’ai continued the struggle to implement his revolutionary program and advocated friendship with the Soviet Union. He was assassinated by members of the Kuomintang’s right wing.