Quo Tai-chi

Who was Quo Tai-chi?

Dr. Quo Tai-chi was a Chinese career diplomat during Republican Era of China and active member of the Kuomintang from the early years of the Republic of China until shortly after the fall of mainland China to the Communist Party of China.

Dr. Quo was born in Hupei province in 1888 and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1911, Phi Beta Kappa.

He was one of the technical delegates of China to the Paris Peace Conference, 1918-1919. At a time when the victors of the Great War were negotiating the spoils of war and punishment of the conquered, Quo controversially stated it would be better for the Germans to retain their concessions in Shantung than to allow the aggressive, militarist Japanese to take possession of them. The Chinese delegation's wishes were largely ignored by the European powers, and Quo's words proved prophetic as over the next three decades, Japan's appetite for conquest proved genocidal.

Dr. Quo published a book in English, entitled China's Fight for Democracy, in 1920, at a time when the Kuomintang was actively struggling against several regional warlords to reunify China as a democratic republic.