Huang Shao-ku (24 July 1 90 1-), journalist and politician, was secretary general in Feng Yühsiang's headquarters in 1928 and Feng's representative at the so-called enlarged conference of 1930. He served under Chang Chih-chung as an administrative commissioner in Hunan and as chief of the third office of the Military Council's political department. From 1943 to 1948 he was the publisher of the newspaper Sao-tang pao. In Taiwan, he held such offices as vice president of the Executive Yuan, foreign minister, and ambassador to Spain. Nanhsien, which borders on the Tungt'ing Lake in northern Hunan, was the birthplace of Huang Shao-ku. Although his father had little money, he did all he could to ensure that Huang would receive a good education. In 1919 Huang was admitted to the Ming-te Middle School in Changsha. It was the year of the May Fourth Movement, and student agitation soon began in Hunan. When a student-led movement to oust Chang Ching-yao, the northern warlord in control of the province, was launched, Huang became a leader in the campaign.

After completing his secondary education toward the end of 1929, Huang Shao-ku decided to apply to National Peking Universityj which provided scholarships. He succeeded in gaining admission to the university in 1923. He soon found, however, that it was necessary to find part-time work because of the erratic nature of government appropriations to educational institutions. In the summer of 1925 he was given a job at the Shih-chieh wan-pao [world evening news], the evening edition of the well-known newspaper Shih-chieh jih-pao [world daily news]. He soon became chief editor ofthe evening paper. The death of Sun Yat-sen early in 1925 greatly spurred Kuomintang development in north China, and Huang Shao-ku was one of the many enthusiastic young people who joined the revolutionary party at that time. Chang Tso-lin (q.v.j, then in control at Peking, ordered the summary arrest of Communists and Kuomintang members, for the two parties were working together in the Northern Expedition. Huang Shao-ku was forced to flee Peking. With an introduction from the Communist leader Li Ta-chao (q.v.), he went to Sian to join the army of Feng Yü-hsiang I'q.v.y.

Feng Yü-hsiang had announced his support of the Northern Expedition, and on 1 May 1927 he assumed the post of commander in chief of the Second Group Army of the National Revolutionary Army. Huang Shao-ku was appointed to serve as a secretary under Ho Chih-kung, the secretary general in Feng's headquarters. The young man of 26 made such an impression on Feng that he soon was made head of the propaganda office for the three provinces of Shensi, Kansu, and Honan and head of the peasants training institute for those provinces. When Ho Chih-kung resigned as secretary general, Feng bypassed many of his older subordinates and appointed Huang to succeed Ho. After the Northern Expedition was brought to a successful conclusion in 1928, Feng Yühsiang became minister of war in the National Government. For a time, Huang Shao-ku lived in Shanghai and held no official posts. Feng soon joined the Kwangsi clique {see Pai Ch'ung-hsi; Li Tsung-jen; Huang Shao-hungj in opposition to Chiang Kai-shek. After Feng's departure from Nanking for the north in 1929, Huang Shao-ku served as his deputy in the Nanking-Shanghai area. In 1930 Yen Hsi-shan (x[.v.) joined with Feng in what became known as the Yen-Feng coalition or the enlarged conference movement. The group also included the Kwangsi clique, Wang Ching-wei and his Reorganizationist clique, and the W^estern Hills group. Although hostilities between the rebels and the Nanking government troops broke out in May 1930, the so-called enlarged conference of the second central committees of the Kuomintang was not convened until early in July. Feng Yü-hsiang was represented by Huang Shao-ku throughout the important deliberations. The movement soon was suppressed, chiefly because Chang Hsueh-liang (q.v.) gave his support to the National Government. The collapse of the Yen-Feng coalition sent Huang Shao-ku into political retirement once again. By early 1932 he had decided that he wished to go abroad for further education. Ch'en Kung-po, the minister of industry, oflTered Huang an appointment as investigator of industrial conditions abroad so that he could take a trip overseas, but Huang declined the appointment. Instead, he accepted the off"er of Ku Meng-yü, the minister of railways, of a scholarship from that ministry. In the summer of 1934 Huang left China for England, where he attended lectures at the School of Economics and Political Science of the University of London. When the Sino-Japanese war broke out in the summer of 1937, Huang Shao-ku returned to China from England. Chang Chih-chung (q.v.), then governor of Hunan, appointed Huang administrative commissioner of the eighth special district of Hunan and magistrate of Nanhsien. It happened that there was a poor harvest that season, and the superstitious gentry blamed it on Huang, saying that "Shao-ku," meaning "deficiency in grain," was a bad omen and had brought about the bad fortune. Huang immediately resigned.

Huang Shao-ku went to Chungking in the summer of 1938 and met Yü Yu-jen ('q.v. j, head of the Control Yuan, who had thought highly of Huang when he first went to serve Feng Yü-hsiang at Sian in 1927. Yü appointed him to the Control Yuan. In 1939 Huang also became councillor of the secretariat of the Supreme National Defense Council.

In October 1940 Chang Chih-chung succeeded Ch'en Ch'eng (q.v.) as chief of the political department of the Military Council. At Chang's invitation, Huang resigned from the Control Yuan and the Supreme National Defense Council to assume the post of chairman of the planning committee of the political department. In 1941 Huang became chief of the third office of the political department, in charge of cultural and propaganda activities in the army. The importance of this appointment may be gauged from the fact that his predecessor as head of the third office had been Kuo Mo-jo (q.v.). In 1943 Huang Shao-ku was made publisher o^ Sao-tang pao [mopping-up journal], the newspaper of the Nationalist army. He held this post until early 1948 and was continually embroiled in ideological and political debates with the Chinese Communist paper Hsin-hua jih-pao. After the war ended in 1945, the paper, renamed Ho-p'ing jih-pao [peace daily], moved its headquarters from Chungking to Nanking. It soon became a huge newspaper chain, with editions printed in Nanking, Shanghai, Hankow, Chungking, Lanchow, and Canton.

In 1947, with the adoption of a new constitution and the holding of the first popular elections for national offices, Huang Shao-ku became a member of the Legislative Yuan as a representative from Hunan. In 1948 he was appointed minister of propaganda of the Kuomintang headquarters. He had been elected a full member of the Central Supervisory Committee of the party in 1945.

After Chiang Kai-shek retired from the presidency in January 1949 and Li Tsung-jen became acting President, Ho Ying-ch'in (q.v.) was appointed president of the Executive Yuan, and Huang Shao-ku was made secretary general of the yuan. The collapse of the peace talks with the Chinese Communists led to the launching of the general offensive against Nanking by the Communists. On 22 April, Huang accompanied Li Tsung-jen and Ho Ying-ch'in to Hangchow for a conference with Chiang Kai-shek. Their return to Nanking from Hangchow was the signal for the abandonment of Nanking by the Nationalists. On the morning of 23 April, Li, Ho, and Huang emplaned for Canton, the new seat of the National Government. Ho Ying-ch'in resigned as president of the Executive Yuan on 30 May ; he was succeeded by Yen Hsi-shan. Huang was made a minister without portfolio in the new cabinet.

In August 1949 Chiang Kai-shek established in Taipei the office of the tsung-ts'ai [leader] of the Kuomintang and appointed Huang chief secretary. Earlier, in July 1949, Huang had been a member of Chiang Kai-shek's entourage during the Generalissimo's visit with President Quirino of the Philippines at Baguio. Huang was also in Chiang's party when he visited with President Syngman Rhee of South Korea at Chinhai in August. Chiang Kai-shek returned to office in March 1950 as President in Taiwan, and Ch'en Ch'eng was appointed president of the Executive Yuan. Huang Shao-ku became minister without portfolio and secretary general of the Executive Yuan. In June 1954, when O. K. Yui (Yü Hung-chün, q.v.) assumed the presidency of the Executive Yuan, Huang was made its vice president. Yui resigned in July 1958, and Ch'en Ch'eng was reappointed head of the Executive Yuan. In this cabinet, Huang Shao-ku served as foreign minister. He also served as the National Government's special envoy to the inauguration of President Arduro Frondize of Argentina, the coronation of Pope John XXIII, and the inauguration of President Adolfo Lopez Mateos of Mexico.

In Taiwan, Huang continued to be active in the Kuomintang. In 1952 and 1957 he was elected to the Central Executive Committee and to its standing committee. He also served as chairman of the propaganda work guidance committee of central party headquarters. Huang Shao-ku served as foreign minister until July 1960, when he was appointed ambassador to Spain. In June 1962 he was succeeded bv Chou Shu-kai.