Li Yuanhong

Li Yuanhong was a Chinese general and politician who served as the president of the Republic of China twice, from 1916 to 1917 and from 1922 to 1923. He was also the provisional vice president from 1912 to 1916 under Sun Yat-sen and Yuan Shikai. He played a key role in the Xinhai Revolution of 1911, which overthrew the Qing dynasty and established the republic. Li was born into a military family in Huangpi, Hubei province. He graduated from the Tianjin naval academy and served as an engineer in the First Sino-Japanese War. He later joined the Hubei New Army and became a senior officer in Hankou. He was involved in the Railway Protection Movement, which protested against the Qing government's plan to nationalize the railways. He also attempted to break up revolutionary rings that infiltrated his brigade, but did not arrest or punish them. When the Wuchang Uprising broke out in October 1911, Li was dragged from hiding under his wife's bed and forced to be the provisional military governor of Hubei by the mutineers. He initially resisted, but later embraced the revolution and was named the military governor of China by the Revolutionary Alliance. He negotiated a truce with Yuan Shikai, the Qing premier, and persuaded the last emperor, Puyi, to abdicate in February 1912. He then became the vice president of the Republic of China under Sun Yat-sen, who soon resigned in favor of Yuan Shikai. Li remained as the vice president under Yuan, but had little power or influence. He formed the Republican Party to oppose Yuan's autocratic tendencies and supported the Second Revolution of 1913, which attempted to overthrow Yuan. After Yuan's death in 1916, Li became the president of the Republic of China, but faced many challenges from the warlords who controlled various regions of the country. He also had to deal with the pressure from Japan, which presented the Twenty-One Demands to China in 1915, seeking to extend its influence and control. Li tried to balance the interests of the different factions and powers, but failed to maintain stability and unity. He was forced to resign in 1917 after a coup by Zhang Xun, a Qing loyalist who briefly restored Puyi to the throne. He was succeeded by Feng Guozhang, another warlord. Li then retired to Tianjin, where he lived under the protection of the Japanese. In 1922, he was invited by Cao Kun, the leader of the Zhili clique, to resume the presidency in Beijing. However, he soon found himself in conflict with Cao and his allies, who dominated the Beiyang government and the parliament. He refused to recognize Cao's election as the president in 1923, which was rigged by bribery. He also supported the anti-warlord movement led by Sun Yat-sen in the south, who launched the Northern Expedition to unify China under the Kuomintang. Cao and his rival, Zhang Zuolin of the Fengtian clique, both tried to force Li to resign or cooperate with them, but Li resisted. He was eventually ousted by a coup in 1923 and fled to the Japanese concession in Tianjin. He lived there until his death in 1928, from uremia, a kidney disease. Li Yuanhong was a controversial figure in Chinese history. He was praised for his courage, integrity, and patriotism, as well as his role in the Xinhai Revolution and the founding of the republic. He was also criticized for his indecisiveness, weakness, and incompetence, as well as his failure to prevent the warlord era and the Japanese aggression. He was seen as a symbol of the chaos and division of China in the early 20th century.