Zhou Ziqi

Zhou Ziqi

Zhou Ziqi (Wade-Giles Chou Tzu-ch'i) 周自齊 (1871–1923), was a politician in the late Qing dynasty and early republican period.

He was born in Guangzhou and spoke Cantonese but he later moved back to his ancestral province of Shandong. He received higher education in the United States at Columbia University. He became superintendent of Tsinghua University in 1911. The following year, he secured Shandong for Yuan Shikai and later became its military governor. He then served as communications minister and later finance minister in Yuan's cabinet. He helped leak information about Japan's Twenty-One Demands to the media. Zhou may have invited Columbia University political scientist FJ Goodnow to justify monarchism for China. During Yuan's monarchic attempt, he was sent to Japan as a special envoy. The Japanese government rejected him and he returned to tell Yuan that his government lost foreign support. In 1916, Zhou fled to Japan after President Li Yuanhong ordered the arrest of Yuan's eight top monarchists. He returned to China after the charges were dropped in February 1918. As Xu Shichang's finance minister, he lost in a power struggle against Premier Jin Yunpeng in 1921 and was compelled to resign. Seeking revenge, he convinced Zhang Zuolin to replace Jin with Liang Shiyi, the head of the civilian Communications Clique. He later served as acting premier and acting president briefly in 1922 after Xu resigned. His presidency was interim as the Zhili clique tried to woo Li Yuanhong back into office. He died the following year.