Yen Hui-ch'ing T. Chün-jen West. W. W. Yen Yen Hui-ch'ing (2 April 1877-23 May 1950), known as W. W. Yen, American-trained scholar, government official, and diplomat. He served as ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1933 to 1936.

Shanghai was the birthplace of W. W. Yen. Both of his parents were Christians. His father, the Reverend Yen Young-kiung (Yen Yung-ching), became proctor and professor of mathematics and natural philosophy at St. John's College upon its founding in 1879; and he was pastor of the (Episcopal) Church of Our Savior in Hongkew from 1887 until his death in 1898. The elder Yen had received his higher education in the United States, and all of his children, five sons and a daughter, studied either in the United States or in England. W. W. Yen studied at St. John's College, Anglo- Chinese College, and the T'ung-wen-kuan in Shanghai before going to the United States in 1895 to enter an Episcopal-sponsored secondary school in Virginia. In 1897 he enrolled at the University of Virginia, where he won a number of academic prizes, served as secretary of the Blackford Literary Society in 1897-98, and became a member of Phi Beta Kappa in 1899. Upon graduation from the University of Virginia in 1900, W. W. Yen returned to China to accept an appointment as professor of English at St. John's College, which became a university in 1905. Yen remained at St. John's until 1906. During this period, he translated various English-language works into Chinese and participated in the intellectual and civic life of the "community, becoming a member of the Chinese Educational Association, the Anti-Footbinding Society, and other social welfare organizations. He also was a founder of the Chinese World Students Association. In 1906 he accepted a position at the Commercial Press as editor in chief of the English and Chinese Standard Dictionary, which was published in 1908.

In 1907 Yen went to The Hague to serve as interpreter in the Chinese legation, then headed by Lu Cheng-hsiang (q.v.). The following year, he was transferred to Washington as second secretary, under Wu T'ing-fang (q.v.) as minister. He was promoted to the post of first councillor after Chang Yin-t'ang succeeded Wu T'ing-fang in 1909. Yen returned to China in 1910 to organize a press bureau for the Ch'ing government, and in August 1911 he became junior councillor in the Board of Foreign Affairs.

With the establishment of the republican government at Peking in March 1912 and the organization of the cabinet under T'ang Shao-yi (q.v.), W. W. Yen became vice minister of foreign affairs. He held that post until 1913, when he was appointed minister to Germany, Denmark, and Sweden. At the time of the socalled second revolution {see Li Lieh-chün), Yen, then residing in Germany, joined several other Chinese ministers abroad in urging domestic peace. He remained loyal to the Peking government throughout the tumultuous 1913-19 period. When China entered the First World War on the side of the Allies in August 1917 [see Tuan Ch'i-jui) , he left Germany and took up residence in Denmark.

In May 1920 W. W. Yen returned to China and established residence in the seaside resort town of Peitaiho, Chihli (Hopei). On 1 1 August, Chin Yün-p'eng (q.v.), then the premier at Peking, appointed Yen minister of foreign affairs. About this, time, the Far Eastern Republic, organized in eastern Siberia in April 1920, sent a mission to Peking which was headed by Ignatius Yurin. In September, Yen informed the Tsarist envoy to Peking, Prince N. A. KaudachelT, that his voluntary retirement would help simplify a complicated situation. Kaudacheff rejected the suggestion, and on 23 September the Peking government issued a mandate terminating relations with the Tsarist minister. The next step toward the regularization of Sino-Russian relations came with the reception at Peking of Alexander K. Paikes, representing both the Chita and the Moscow governments, in December 1921. Paikes presented his credentials to Yen on 16 December, and soon afterwards the ministries of foreign affairs and communications were authorized to undertake negotiations with him. These negotiations collapsed when it was discovered that Soviet Russia had signed a treaty with Outer Mongolia on 5 November 1921. In the meantime. Yen had concluded a treaty with Germany in May 1921 which had reestablished peaceful Sino-German relations.

After serving under Li Yuan-hung (q.v.) as officiating premier as well as foreign minister from June to August 1922, W. W. Yen was dropped from the cabinet. He then served as chairman of the Western-Returned Students Club and president of the Chinese Social and Political Science Association until August 1923, when he was appointed chairman of the newly formed commission for the readjustment of finance. It was the function of this commission to determine the total amount of the Peking government's domestic and foreign debts and the methods of adjustment and redemption to be used. The creation of this commission aroused hopes among foreign creditors that China was about to begin funding its debts, but Yen's preliminary report, issued in April 1924, disclosed that the Peking government was virtually bankrupt. Yen, who initially thought that the commission's work could be completed in six months, served as chairman for four years. In January 1924 W. W. Yen assumed additional responsibility as minister of agriculture and commerce in the cabinet of his father-inlaw, Sun Pao-ch'i (q.v.). When Sun resigned in July, V. K. Wellington Koo (Ku Wei-chün, q.v.) became acting premier. Ts'ao K'un (q.v.), then the president at Peking, nominated Yen to succeed Sun, but the Parliament did not approve Yen's appointment until September. Yen formed a new cabinet on 15 September, but he resigned when Feng Yü-hsiang (q.v.) effected a coup at Peking in October. After a few months of political inactivity, Yen was appointed to the commission charged with investigating the May Thirtieth Incident at Shanghai. In October 1925 he was named minister to the Court of St. James's, but that appointment was superseded later in October by his designation as a delegate to the customs tariff conference at Peking. In May 1926 Yen again became premier, but Chang Tso-lin (q.v.) opposed his appointment and forced him to resign in June. Yen appointed Tu Hsi-kuei acting premier on 22 June and retired to Tientsin.

W. W. Yen then devoted his attention to civic and business affairs. In Tientsin he operated an import-export firm, served as a member of the Chinese Ratepayers Association in the British concession, and became associated with Nankai University. He also served as a director of such Peking institutions as Yenching University and the Peking Union Medical College. In June 1931 he accepted an appointment as chairman of the China International Famine Relief Commission.

In September 1931 W. W. Yen fully emerged from political retirement to succeed C. C. Wu (Wu Ch'ao-shu, q.v.) as Chinese minister to the United States. In 1932 he also represented China in the Assembly and the Council of the League of Nations. While in Geneva, he negotiated with the Soviet foreign minister, Maxim Litvinov, for the restoration of Sino- Soviet relations, which had been interrupted in 1927. Agreement was reached in mid- December, and Yen was appointed Chinese ambassador to the Soviet Union on 27 December. He presented his credentials at Moscow early in 1933. That year he also served as a delegate to the League Assembly, and he attended the World Monetary and Economic Conference at London in May. In January 1934 Soviet military intervention in Sinkiang in support of Sheng Shih-ts'ai (q.v.) focused the National Government's attention on that province. Yen was called to Nanking in February for consultations regarding the matter. After his return to Moscow, he was directed to forward an inquiry to the Soviet authorities about the nature of Soviet dealings in Sinkiang. Sino-Soviet relations worsened as support of Sheng Shih-ts'ai and Soviet commercial penetration of Sinkiang continued. In an effort to improve relations, the National Government appointed T. F. Tsiang (Chiang T'ing-fu, q.v.) to succeed W. W. Yen as ambassador to the Soviet Union in October 1936.

W. W. Yen's return to China late in 1936 marked the end of his career as a diplomat of importance. During the Sino-Japanese War his only post was that of member of the People's Political Council. At war's end, he received another largely honorary appointment as chairman of the Far Eastern Regional Committee of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. In 1947 he became a member of the State Council at Nanking. He undertook his last mission for the National Government in February 1949, when he headed an unofficial delegation that went to north China for an exchange of views with Mao Tse-tung and Chou En-lai at Shihchiachuang. Yen then went to Shanghai. After the People's Republic of China was established in October 1949, he became chairman of the Shanghai branch of the Sino- Soviet Friendship Association. Yen died in Shanghai on 23 May 1950, at the age of 73. He was survived by three sons—Ti-sheng, Chihsheng, and Pao-sheng—and by three daughters —Ying-sheng, Nan-sheng, and Pin-sheng. n