Zhou Fohai

Zhou Fohai , Chinese politician, and second in command of Wang Jingwei's collaborationist Nanjing Nationalist Government Executive Yuan.

Born in Hunan Province in 1897, Zhou chose a political career after studying in Japan. He attended the first conference of Communist Party of China in July 1921 but quit the Party in 1924 to join the Kuomintang and his political career began while he was assigned to the publicity department of the central government. In 1938, as the Second Sino-Japanese War was going badly, he became a close collaborator of Wang Jingwei.

Zhou followed Wang when he formed the puppet Nanjing Nationalist Government in Japanese occupied China. Zhou control in the regime extended to finance, treasury, foreign affairs and part of the army. He was also police minister, treasurer and mayor of Shanghai.

After the invading Japanese were defeated in 1945, Zhou was captured and taken to Chongqing where he remained in custody for nearly a year. He was then sent to Nanjing in Jiangsu Province where he stood trial for his wartime role. He was sentenced to death but this was commuted to life imprisonment by Chiang Kai-shek, after his wife had interceded for him. He suffered from heart and stomach problems while in prison and died on February 28, 1948, aged 52.