GlobalizingHanjian: The Suzhou Trials and the Post–World War II Discourse on Collaboration

Abstract

ON APRIL 6, 1946, THE SHANGHAI-BASED NEWSPAPER SHENBAO DEVOTED most of its front page to the trial of Chen Gongbo, China’s most prominent hanjian (literally “traitor of the Chinese people,” generally translated into English as “collaborator”), which was taking place at the Jiangsu Higher Court in the nearby city of Suzhou. 1 Chen Gongbo was a well-known political personality in China, having been a longtime leader of the ruling Nationalist Party (Guomindang, or GMD) and the minister of industry from 1932 to 1936. In 1940, together with Wang Jingwei—also a prominent longtime leader of the GMD and chairman of the Executive Yuan, the executive branch of the Nationalist Government, from 1932 to 1936—he had established a government in Nanjing in collaboration with the Japanese: the Reorganized Nationalist Government, or RNG (1940–1945). Chen had held important positions within this collaborationist organization, and after Wang’s death in November 1944, he had succeeded him as its acting chairman. 2 Chen was accused primarily of “plotting with the enemy” and “opposing the central government.” In his defense, he described his work with the RNG as negotiating with the Japanese in an attempt to preserve China’s resources, protect its people, and slowly erode Japan’s control over China. Although he admitted that he had not ultimately been successful in achieving his goals, he portrayed himself not as a col