Wu Chung-hsin (15 March 1884-16 December 1959), military and political associate of Sun Yat-sen and Chiang Kai-shek who served as governor of Anhwei (1932) and Kweichow (1935), chairman of the Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission (1936-44), and governor of Sinkiang (1944-45).

Ancestors of Wu Chung-hsin had moved from Kiangsi to Lochiakang in the northern part of Hofei, Anhwei, in the early years of the Ch'ing dynasty. They had taken up farming as a livelihood. At the time of the Taiping Rebellion, his paternal grandfather. Wu Yung-pi, had established a hsien defense militia, thus enabling the inhabitants to enjoy a measure of peace. Because Lochiakang was far from any market town, Wu Yung-pi established a small store. Lochiakang soon became known locally as Wuchiatien. Wu Yung-pi's son, Wu Chi-lung, had five sons, of whom Wu Chung-hsin was the youngest. When Wu Chung-hsin was barely two, his father died; his mother died five years later. Thus, the young Wu was reared and educated by his four elder brothers. Wu Chung-hsin decided to pursue a military career, and in 1901 he enrolled at the Kiangnan Military Academy. Upon graduation in 1905, he was sent to Chinkiang to handle troop conscription there. His performance was such that he soon received command of a battalion in the Kiangnan Army. In 1906 Yang Cho-lin, a member of the T'ung-meng-hui, returned to China from Japan to promote the revolutionary cause in the Kiangnan Army. Wu soon joined the T'ung-meng-hui. After Yang was executed in 1907 Wu, then at Nanking, began disseminating revolutionary ideas in the army to avenge his friend's death. As a result, Wu was transferred to Chinkiang, where he served as judge advocate in the headquarters of the 15th Regiment. At the time of the republican revolution in 1911, he served as chief executive legal officer and inspector general of military depots in the Kiangsu-Chekiang-Shanghai revolutionary forces. With the establishment of the Chinese republic in 1912, Wu Chung-hsin was appointed superintendent of the Nanking police force. He held that post until June, when he received command of forces in the Nanking-Chinkiang-Kiangyin- Woosung sector. Soon afterwards, he resigned and went to Shanghai to serve under Yu Yu-jen (q.v.) as general manager of the Min-li pao. At the time of the so-called second revolution {see Li Lieh-chun) in 1913, Wu resumed office as Nanking police superintendent at the request of Huang Hsing (q.v.). When the anti-Yuan Shih-k'ai campaign failed, he fled to Japan, where he studied political economy. He supported the reorganization of the Kuomintang as the Chung-hua ko-ming-tang, with headquarters in Japan. In October 1915 Ch'en Ch'i-mei (q.v.) returned to China accompanied by Chiang Kai-shek, Ch'en Kuo-fu, Ch'en Li-fu (qq.v.), and Wu Chung-hsin to plan moves against Yuan Shih-k'ai. This group staged the spectacular but unsuccessful Chao-ho gunboat affair on 5 December in an attempt to recapture Shanghai. Ch'en Ch'i-mei and his supporters were forced to flee from their headquarters in the French concession at Shanghai to escape arrest. At the time of Ch'en Ch'i-mei's assassination on 18 May 1916, Wu narrowly escaped death. He was just entering the room when the shots were fired. Wu lost a tooth in the subsequent confusion but otherwise was unharmed. In 1917, when Sen Yat-sen established a military government at Canton, Wu Chunghsin joined the Kwangtung forces. By the end of 1921 he had risen to become garrison commander of Kweilin and had become acquainted with such young Kwangsi leaders as Li Tsung-jen and Pai Ch'ung-hsi (qq.v.). Throughout this period, however, Wu was plagued by dysentery and other intestinal troubles. In April 1922 he resigned from his military post and went to Shanghai for medical treatment. He then went to Soochow to recuperate, remaining there until the Northern Expedition began in mid- 1926.

Chiang Kai-shek invited Wu Chung-hsin to Nanchang in the autumn of 1926 and appointed him an adviser in his headquarters there. The National Revolutionary Army captured Shanghai in March 1927, and Wu was made a member of the Kiangsu provincial council. He then became chief of the Woosung- Shanghai police department. Because Shanghai had no municipal administration, the police department also had to perform the functions of a municipal government. Both before and after the anti-Communist purge in April, Wu was confronted with many problems. He handled them pragmatically with the help of Tu Yuehsheng (q.v.). In August, when Chiang Kai-shek temporarily retired in the interests of party unity, Wu resigned and returned home. He returned to public life in February 1928, when he became a member of the newly established National Reconstruction Commission {see Chang Jen-chieh). In October of that year, Chiang Kai-shek sent him to north China to reorganize the Hopei armies. After completing that task, Wu left China with K. P. Ch'en (Chen Kuangfu, q.v.) in February 1929 for a tour of Southeast Asia, Europe, the Unites States, and Japan. Wu and Ch'en returned to China in October. After serving as a member of the Control Yuan in 1931, Wu Chung-hsin became governor of Anhwei in the spring of 1932. Because of the great difficulties he encountered in attempting to govern his native province, he tendered his resignation in December 1932, but it was not accepted until May 1933. He then became chief adviser to Chiang Kai-shek's Nanchang headquarters and participated in planning the campaigns that forced the Chinese Communists out of Kiangsi on the Long March. In 1935 he was appointed governor of Kweichow, and he was made a member of the Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang.

In August 1936 Wu Chung-hsin succeeded Huang Mu-sung (q.v.) as chairman of the Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission. At that time, the Panchen Lama (q.v.) was attempting to return to Tibet. Because of British and Tibetan protests and the political complexities caused by the outbreak of the Sino- Japanese war in July 1937, Wu urged the temporary postponement of the Panchen's return to Tibet. The matter came to an end with the Panchen's death that December. In 1938 Wu recognized a new opportunity for the adjustment of Sino-Tibetan relations in the forthcoming confirmation of the fourteenth incarnation of the Dalai Lama. That December, the National Government designated Wu Chung-hsin and Radreng Rimpoche, the Tibetan regent, to be in charge of the confirmation ceremony. After some difficulty, Lhasa finally decided to accept Wu's mission when assurances were given about its political scope. The confirmation ceremony was held on 22 February 1940. At that time, the staff of the Chinese liaison office at Lhasa consisted of one radio operator. After extended negotiations with the Lhasa authorities, on 1 April Wu established a Tibetan branch of the Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission. On 14 April, he left Lhasa. On his way back to Chungking, he stopped in India, where he visited Rabindranath Tagore and Jawaharlal Nehru. Wu reached Chungking in July 1940 and made his report. Many years later, in 1959, his report was published in Taipei as Hsi-tsang chi-yao [record of important facts about Tibet]. Chinese influence in Tibet diminished again in 1941, when the pro-Chinese Radreng Rimpoche was replaced as regent by the pro-British Jung-tseng. Chinese plans for a supply route through Tibet then had to be abandoned.

Wu Chung-hsin succeeded Sheng Shih-ts'ai (q.v.) as governor of Sinkiang in October 1944. After his arrival at Urumchi, he released a large number of political prisoners, including Burhan (q.v.) and several National Government officials. Sheng Shih-ts'ai's oppression of Sinkiang's non-Chinese inhabitants and the overzealous efforts of Kuomintang workers to sinicize the province after their arrival at the beginning of 1943 had given rise to intense anti-Chinese feeling in Sinkiang. Kazakh and Turki peoples, with some Soviet support, staged a revolt in November 1944; won control of the Hi, Chuguchak, and Altai districts; and established the so-called East Turkestan Republic. The rebellion continued, and in the late summer of 1945 Chang Chih-chung (q.v.) was sent to Urumchi to aid Wu. Arrangements were made for Soviet mediation, and a preliminary agreement with the Hi rebels was signed in January 1946. Chang Chih-chung then succeeded Wu as governor of Sinkiang in March.

When the National Government was reorganized in April 1947, Wu Chung-hsin was elected to the State Council. In December 1948 he was appointed secretary general in the presidential office, charged with handling the delicate matter of the transfer of presidential authority from Chiang Kai-shek to Li Tsungjen. He resigned on 21 January 1949, when Chiang Kai-shek announced his retirement from office and Li Tsung-jen became acting President. Thereafter, he served as a liaison officer between Chiang and Li. In May, as the war for control of the mainland was coming to an end, Wu went to Taiwan, where he helped prepare that island as a base for retreat. After Chiang Kai-shek resumed the presidency of the National Government in Taiwan on 1 March 1950, Wu became a member of the board of directors of the Central Bank and a member of the Kuomintang Central Advisory Committee. In July 1952 he was appointed chairman of the Kuomintang Central Disciplinary Committee. He held these posts until his death on 16 December 1959. Wu was survived by three sons and a daughter. His eldest son, Shen-shu, studied art in France. His younger sons, Yung-shu and Kuang-shu, and his daughter, Hsun-shu, all studied in the United States.