Xiong Xiling\u27s Relations with Japan Before and After the 1911 Revolution

Xiong Xiling (1869-1937) was a key person in China\u27s modern transformation in the early twentieth century and had close relations with Japan. Before the 1911 Revolution, he visited Japan for several times for learning management in business and irrigation projects and experiences in promoting a constitutional government. His open-mindedness in political reform and his talents in financial management were highly evaluated by Naitō Konan (1866-1934), a leading Chinese history professor at Kyoto Imperial University. After the 1911 Revolution, he was the Finance Minister in the first cabinet under the Provisional President Sun Yat-sen and was entrusted by President Yuan Shi-kai to form a cabinet in late 1913. Along with the Justice Minister Liang Qi-chao and the Business Minister Zhang Jian, Xiong started a serial of reforms, especially those in the legal and business systems. They also tried to attract investments from the United States for developing oil fields in Shaanxi Province and for curing the flooding problem of the Huai River by a radical irrigation project. However, these Sino-American provisional agreement and contract were taken as the sign of Xiong\u27s intention to curb the Japanese business expansion by Naitō Konan as well as Yamaza Enjirō, the Japanese Minister in Peking, because of the rivalry between Japan and the United States since the Russo-Japanese War. But Xiong denied the charge by Yamaza and emphasized his omnidirectional foreign policy