Shao P'iao-p'ing (1889-26 April 1926), journalist and editor of the Peking newspaper Ching Pao [Peking report]. He was executed for allegedly treasonous activities in 1926. The Chinhua district of Chekiang was the birthplace of Shao P'iao-p'ing. Little is known about his background or early years except that he entered the Chekiang Higher School at Hangchow about 1907. Among his schoolmates were Ch'en Pu-lei and Shao Yuanch'ung (qq.v.), both of whom later achieved prominence in the Kuomintang. After being graduated in 1911, the year of the republican revolution, he became an editor of the Han-min jih-pao at Hangchow. At the time of the socalled second revolution in 1913, he was imprisoned by supporters of Yuan Shih-k'ai for having written strong editorials supporting Sun Yat-sen's cause. Upon his release several months later, he fled to Japan, where many Kuomintang leaders had taken refuge. In Tokyo, Shao came to know the prominent Hunanese journalist Chang Shih-chao (q.v.), who then was editing a monthly publication called Chia-yin tsa-chih {The Tiger Magazine). After the death of Yuan Shih-k'ai in June 1916, Shao P'iao-p'ing went to Peking and became a correspondent for such newspapers as the Shanghai Shun Pao and the Shih-shih hsin-pao {China Times). When Chang Shih-chao revived his Tokyo magazine in Peking as a daily newspaper, Chia-yin Jih-k'an {The Tiger Daily) in January 1917, Shao became one of its most enthusiastic contributors. He also assumed responsibility for editing and publishing the paper whenever Chang was absent from the northern capital.

Shao P'iao-p'ing, who had "a nose for a good story" and a forceful style, soon became one of the best-known journalists in Peking. In 1920 he launched the Ching Pao [Peking report]. Although the paper became popular as a result of its criticism of the Anhwei clique {see Tuan Ch'i-jui), official reaction to it obliged Shao to flee to Japan. He returned to China in 1921 to accept an appointment as professor of journalism at Peking University. In 1923 he published a textbook on modern journalism, Hsin-wen-hsueh tsung-lun. In the early 1920's Shao flourished in the unstable political climate of Peking. By offering the editorial support and influence of the Ching Pao for sale, he was able to indulge his extravagant tastes. In 1925 Shao P'iao-p'ing attempted to win the favor of Feng Yü-hsiang (q.v.) by supporting him in the Ching Pao. About the same time, he commissioned several radical professors at Peking University to prepare a series of literary supplements for his paper. The Chinese Communist party and the Kuomintang then were joined in a political alliance supported by the Comintern, and Shao's actions somehow gave rise to the rumor that he was linked with the propaganda apparatus of the Soviet embassy at Peking. The very existence of this rumor, regardless of its truth or falsity, placed Shao's life in danger when, in the spring of 1926, Chang Tso-lin (q.v.) defeated Feng Yu-hsiang's forces and took control of Peking. Shao sought refuge in the Legation Quarter at the Hotel des Wagons-Lits. On 24 April, having been assured of his safety by an intermediary, he left the security of the Legation Quarter. He immediately was seized by the police and was charged with treason for allegedly having been on the payroll of the Soviet embassy at Peking. Despite his friends' efforts to save him, he was executed on the morning of 26 April 1926 at the T'ien-ch'iao [bridge of heaven] in Peking. Although some newspaper accounts implied that he might have been guilty as charged, others eulogized him as a martyred victim of warlordism. His widow, nee T'ang Hsiu-hui, assured the continued appearance of the Ching Pao by becoming its publisher.