Phan Chu Trinh

Born 1872, in Quang Nam Province; died Mar. 24, 1926, in Saigon. Vietnamese political figure.

In August 1906, Phan Chu Trinh published an open letter to the governor-general of Indochina, criticizing the policies of the colonial authorities. The propaganda work he conducted in favor of reform contributed to an upsurge of peasant protests against excessive taxes. He was sentenced to death in 1908, but the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment at hard labor; he was pardoned in 1910 as a result of public pressure. Phan Chu Trinh lived in France from 1911 to 1925. In 1925 he took part in the Vietnamese Constitutional Party’s efforts to develop a program of democratic demands. Upon returning to his homeland, he gave public lectures on monarchy and democracy.

Phan Chu Trinh fought for the abolition of feudal institutions and the attainment of Vietnamese independence by nonviolent means. In the 1920’s he defended the idea of a parliamentary republic. His funeral was accompanied by mass patriotic rallies. Together with Phan Boi Chau, Phan Chu Trinh is revered by the Vietnamese people as a great patriot.