Li Yüan-Hung

Born Oct. 19, 1864, in the district of Huang-p’i, province of Hupeh; died June 3, 1928, in Tientsin. Chinese military and political figure.

On the eve of the bourgeois Hsin-hai Revolution (1911–13), Li Yüan-hung commanded a brigade of the Chinese New Army, outfitted and trained along European lines. On Oct. 11, 1911, during the Wuch’ang rebellion, revolutionary soldiers and officers forced Li Yüan-hung to head a military-revolutionary government in the province of Hupeh. His policy there favored the interests of the Chinese counterrevolution. He was vice-president in the governments of Sun Yat-sen and Yüan Shi-k’ai (from Jan. 3, 1912, to June 6, 1916). He was president of the Chinese Republic from June 7, 1916, to July 1, 1917, and from June 11, 1922, to June 13, 1923. In 1923 he retired from politics.