Yan Xishan

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Yan Xishan (Traditional Chinese: 閻錫山; Simplified Chinese: 阎锡山; Hanyu Pinyin: Yán Xíshān; Wade-Giles: Yen Hsi-shan) (8 October 1883–22 July 1960) was a Chinese warlord who served in the Republic of China government.

Yan received his formal military training first in China and later at Japan's Imperial Military Academy. In Japan he became a member of Sun Yat-sen's Revolutionary Alliance (Tongmenghui) and following the 1911 Xinhai Revolution he seized power in Shanxi Province. Though a member of the Beiyang Army and affiliated with Duan Qirui, he avoided the violent national politics of the time by enforcing a neutrality policy on Shanxi which freed his province from the civil wars. This ended when he joined the Kuomintang Northern Expedition when it became clear it would be victorious.

Although Yan was known as the "Model Governor" for his enlightened policies, he was nonetheless a military dictator. In 1926, he pledged his loyalty to Chiang Kai-shek's new government, but in 1929 he joined Feng Yuxiang and Wang Jingwei in their attempt to overthrow the Chiang. After a brief retirement in the early 1930s, Yan returned to power in Shanxi and undertook social and military reforms to counteract the spread of Communism in the province. He also supported Zhang Xueliang's seizure of Chiang Kai-shek in the 1936 Xi'an Incident. During World War II, Yan effectively resisted Japanese attempts to seize Shanxi and his troops (including thousands of Japanese) held out against the Communists during the Chinese Civil War until the fortress city of Taiyuan fell in April 1949. Yan fled with the provincial treasury to Taiwan along with the rest of the Republic of China government on 8 December 1949 after the Communists ousted him.

From 3 June 1949 to 7 March 1950, he served as Premier of the Republic of China in Taiwan.

He died in Taipei, Taiwan.

Yan Xishan

See also