Chen Lu

Chen Lu first attended a nautical school and the school for mining and chemistry of the railway administration. In 1901 he started to work as a French teacher at the Ziqiang Foreign Language Academy in Wuhan. Two years later he went to Europe to study in Germany and France, eventually law at the Paris University. Chen graduated and returned to China in 1908 to be employed in the law and foreign affairs department of the Qing-Dynasty.

After establishing the republic Chen Lu was appointed director of the department for political affairs of the Foreign Ministry. In 1914 he was one of the special envoys regarding the affairs in Mongolia. Later Chen was the responsible envoy for the canonization of the 8th eighth Jebtsundamba, the theocratic ruler of Mongolia. In 1917, he resigned from his duties due to illness.

One year later, he was appointed deputy foreign minister. Since 1920 Chen served as ambassador in France and later also as the Chinese representative in the League of Nations in Geneva. During this period, he was a member of the 1924 Olympics art jury. Chen returned to China in 1928 to work as a lawyer in Shanghai. He resumed his work for public service in 1934 as a consultant to the government in foreign affairs and later as deputy chairman of the foreign ministry’s treaty committee. Since 1938 he was a member of the Japanese controlled Reformed Government of the Republic of China as foreign minister. Chen Lu was then shot to death as a collaborator by an agent of the Chinese military intelligence agency. He also published numerous literary and historical studies as well as translations from Chinese.