Wong Wen-hao (1889-), pioneer in the development of geological research in China as director of the China Geological Survey and head of the geological research institute at Peiping. In 1938-45 he served the National Government as minister of economic affairs. He was the first president of the Executive Yuan to be elected under the 1947 constitution, but he resigned after the disastrous failure of the 1948 currency reform. In the 1950's he undertook prospecting expeditions for the People's Republic of China. Ningpo, Chekiang, was the birthplace of Wong Wen-hao. Little is known about his early life except that he studied for his doctorate in physics and geology at Louvain University in Belgium and received his degree in 1912. Upon his return to China in 1912, he became chief of the mining section of the ministry of agriculture and commerce. Knowledge of China's natural resources was far from adequate at the beginning of the republican period, and Wong soon made major contributions to the development of geological research in China.
In 1921 Wong Wen-hao succeeded V. K. Ting (Ting Wen-chiang, q.v.) as director of the China Geological Survey (Chung-kuo ti-chih tiao-ch'a-so), which conducted mineralogical surveys throughout China and which became known throughout the world. In 1922 and 1929 he attended the Pacific Science Conference. During this period, he also taught at Tsinghua University, becoming chairman of its geology department in the late 1920's For a brief period in 1931 he served as acting president of Tsinghua. With the establishment of the Academy of Sciences at Peiping, the China Geological Survey joined with the academy in 1929 to establish a geological research institute. Wong headed the institute for many years. Despite all of these responsibilities, Wong found time to write many articles and two books, Mineral Resources of China and Earthquake Sequences in China.
In October 1932 Wong Wen-hao made a brief foray into politics as minister of education in the National Government He soon resigned and returned to geology. In collaboration with V. K. Ting and Tseng Shih-ying, he compiled an atlas of China, the Chung-hua min-kuo hsin ti-Vu, which was published in 1934 in commemoration of the sixtieth anniversary of the Shanghai Shun Pao. This work, which drew on the findings of the Geological Survey and on thousands of Chinese and foreign maps of China, contained both physical and political maps.
Chiang Kai-shek appointed Wong Wen-hao secretary general of the Executive Yuan in 1935. That year, Wang also became chairman of the National Resources Commission, which controlled such key mineral resources as tin, tungsten, and antimony, and secretary general of the national defense planning commission, established to cope with the probable result of deteriorating Sino-Japanese relations. In 1938, after the Sino-Japanese war began, the National Government organized the ministry of economic affairs to unify control of industrial, mining, commercial, and agricultural activities. Wong headed this important ministry throughout the war years. In 1943, with the aid of various scholars, he drafted an outline of postwar industrial policy, urging the development of state capital, the regulation of private capital, and the promotion of foreign investment in China. The Kuomintang Central Executive Committee approved his proposals in August 1943.
After the war ended, Wong Wen-hao served in 1946 as vice president of the Executive Yuan. He continued to head the National Resources Commission after it came under the authority of the Executive Yuan. Wong sent the economist Chang Hsin-fu to Manchuria for a survey of Japanese industrial and commercial properties there. Chang, however, was killed by Soviet forces near Fushun. Wong went to Manchuria to investigate the case. He was discouraged by the complicated international situation affecting that strategic area, and he was shocked by the corruption prevailing among Nationalist officials assigned to take over Japanese property. Upon his return to Chungking, he resigned from all of his posts. In 1948 Wong Wen-hao returned to political life as the first president of the Executive Yuan to be elected under the new 1947 constitution. However, his tenure of office was a short and unhappy one, in large part because of the disastrous failure of the currency reform introduced by his minster of finance, Wang Yun-wu (q.v.). Wong resigned in the autumn of 1948. A few months later, he went to Hong Kong with his father and his wife, leaving his three sons on the mainland. After the Chinese Communist occupation of Shanghai, Ch'en Yi 1901 — ; q.v.) sent Wong's eldest son, Wong Hsin-yuan, to Hong Kong with an invitation to return and serve the People's Republic of China. Wong sent his father and his wife back to Shanghai, but he did not accept the invitation at that time.
Wong remained in Hong Kong until mid1950, when he went to Paris. Early in 1951 he returned to Hong Kong and then crossed the border into the People's Republic of China. He arrived in Peking on 6 April 1951. On arrival he was met at the railroad station by Kuo Mo-jo, Chang Chih-chung, Yeh Kung-cho (qq.v.), and others. Soon afterwards, Chou En-lai (q.v.) gave a dinner in Wong's honor. Two weeks later, Wong reportedly left Peking for Sinkiang in connection with a project for the prospecting of uranium deposits. In 195254_he made three trips to Tibet to look for uranium and other mineral deposits. On each of these trips he headed a team of several hundred geologists and workers.
Information is lacking about Wong Wen-hao's precise status in the People's Republic of China. He received membership in the standing committee of the Kuomintang Revolutionary Committee in 1958, and in the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in 1959. However, he seems to have held no other posts. Even more puzzling to Western observers was his omission from such scientific organizations as the Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Geological Society. Wu, Butterfly: see Hu Tieh.
