Kan Nai-kuang (1897-September 1956), protege of Liao Chung-k'ai and early adherent of Wang Ching-wei, served the National Government as deputy secretary general of the Supreme National Defense Council (1942-44), vice minister of foreign affairs (1945-47), secretary general of the Executive Yuan (1947), and ambassador to Australia (1948-49).

Little is known of Kan Nai-kuang's background or childhood except that he was a native of Ts'ench'i, Kwangsi. He attended Lingnan University at Canton, where he studied political science and economics and became active in student politics. After graduation in 1920, he remained at Lingnan as a member of the faculty.

Canton was then the principal operating base of the Kuomintang, and Kan joined the party about the time of its reorganization in 1924. Kan's energy and ability attracted the attention of Liao Chung-k'ai (q.v.i, then a leading figure in the top command of the Kuomintang. He employed Kan as a secretary and apparently did much to advance his career. In 1925 Kan Nai-kuang was assigned to the Whampoa Military Academy as English secretary. He also managed two influential newspapers at Canton, the Kuo-min hsin-wen [citizens news] and the Min-kuojih-pao [republican daily]. By the time Liao Chung-k'ai was assassinated in August 1925, Kan Nai-kuang had become identified with Wang Ching-wei and Ch'en Kung-po (q.v.) in the Kuomintang. At the Second National Congress of the Kuomintang in January 1926, which was dominated by Wang Ching-wei's supporters, Kan was elected to membership on the Central Executive Committee. He also became one of the three secretaries of the party secretariat and director of the youth department of the Kuomintang. In May 1926, after Wang Ching-wei left Canton, Kan was relieved of the youth department post and was appointed to succeed the Communist Lin Po-ch'ü (q.v.) as director of the peasants department.

During the Nanking-Wuhan schism in the early months of 1927, Kan worked in Nanking with the Kuomintang faction led by Chiang Kai-shek. However, he came to the support of Wang Ching-wei when Wang began to purge the Communists at Wuhan in August. .After serving as a representative of the Wuhan faction at the unsuccessful party reunification meetings that were held at Shanghai in September, he accompanied Wang to Canton in late October. Chang Fa-k'uei (q.v.) and his troops returned from Wuhan to Kwangtung in November and ousted Li Chi-shen (q.v.). Soon afterwards, Kan was appointed mayor of Canton. It was during his administration that the Chinese Communists staged the December 1927 uprising which became known as the Canton Commune {see Chang T'ai-lei). After the return of Li Chi-shen to power in Canton, the central Kuomintang authorities at Nanking relieved Kan of his post in December 1927. Nanking charged him with "tolerating and i protecting" Communist rioters at Canton and censured him for alleged misappropriation of municipal funds. Kan Xai-kuang spent 1928-29 as a political exile. He went to the United States, where he studied political science at the University of Chicago. Later, on the way back to China, he visited England and Western Europe to observe public administration procedures. The Third National Congress of the Kuomintang, held in March 1929, again took strong action against left-wing elements in the party. Kan Xai-kuang and Ch'en Kung-po were "permanently" dismissed from the Kuomintang, and Wang Ching-wei was sent a written warning for alleged collusion with the Kwangsi clique of Li Tsung-jen and Pai Ch'ung-hsi in "anti- Xanking" activities. In later years, Kan, although remaining on friendly terms with Wang Ching-wei and Ch'en Kung-po, gradually extricated himself from his political connections with them and began to devote himself increasingly to the technical aspects of the government administration in China. Japanese aggression in Manchuria, beginning in 1931, forced some realignment of political factions in the Kuomintang. Kan Xai-kuang was readmitted to the party and was elected to the Central Executive Committee by the Fourth Xational Congress of the Kuomintang. He held administrative posts in the ministry of interior beginning in 1932, and he served as vice minister, under Huang Shao-hung (q.v.), in 1934-35. He also became a standing member of the committee on administrative efficiency of the Executive Yuan at X'anking. ^fter the Sino-Japanese war began, Kan moved westward to Chungking with the Xational Government. From 1938 to 1942 he was deputy secretary general of the central headquarters of the Kuomintang, serving under Chu Chia-hua, Yeh Ch'u-ts'ang, and Wu T'ieh-ch'eng (qq.v.), successively. From 1942 to 1945 he was deputy secretary general of the Supreme Xational Defense Council, serving under Wang Ch'ung-hui (q.v,). These positions were essentially administrative, and Kan had no voice in major political decisions at Chungking. After the Japanese surrender, Kan Xai-kuang became political vice minister in the ministry of foreign affairs. He assumed office in the autumn of 1945 and retained that post until mid-1947. When Chang Ch'ün v

Kan Xai-kuang wrote a number of works on problems of public administration and questions of administrative efficiency and personnel policy. Perhaps his best known work in this field is Chung-kuo hsing-cheng hsin-lun [new treatise on Chinese administration], published in 1947. Earlier works include Sun Wen chu-i chih li-lun yü shih-chi [the theory and practice of Sun Yatsenism], which appeared in 1926, and Hsien- Ch'in ching-chi ssu-hsiang shih [history of economic thought in the former Ch'in dvnasty], published in 1930.