| Ku Cheng-kang 谷正綱 | |
| Birth Date: | 30 April 1902 |
| Birth Place: | Anshun, Guizhou Province, Qing Empire |
| Death Place: | Taipei, Taiwan |
| Other Names: | Gu Zhenggang 谷正綱 |
| Party: | Kuomintang |
Ku Cheng-kang or Gu Zhenggang (; 30 April 1902 – 11 December 1993) was a Chinese politician, scholar and ranking member of the Kuomintang in service to the Republic of China.
Ku Cheng-kang was born in Anshun, Guizhou Province during the late Qing Empire. He had an older brother, and a younger brother Ku Cheng-ting.
Ku attended school in Germany where many of the Kuomintang's elite were also educated. He obtained his bachelor's degree from Humboldt University of Berlin. In 1924, whilst still a student, Ku and his younger brother joined the Kuomintang.
In 1925, the two brothers traveled to the Soviet Union to continue their studies at Moscow Sun Yat-sen University, a comintern school.[1] [2] [3]
The brothers returned to China in 1926. In 1928, they fell in with Chen Gongbo and Ku Meng-yu to form the Reorganization Clique (zh: 国民党改組同志会, 改組派), one of many Kuomintang factions.
In 1931, Ku caught the eye of Chiang Kai-shek who ordered him to Beijing and Tianjin to participate in party organization activity. Later in the year with the Mukden Incident, Chiang began consolidating the party factions and in December, Ku was elected to the Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang.
In December 1934, Ku was appointed as the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Industry and in 1935, he secured a promotion to serve as Vice Minister of the Kuomintang Central Executive Committee.
In 1937, with the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, he was appointed Deputy Minister of the 5th National Government Military Commission. In June 1938, he served as interim secretary for the Society of the Three People's Principles Youth League and was also made the group's Central Executive Officer. In addition, he served as KMT Chairman and party boss for Zhejiang Province.[1] [2] [3] [4]
In November 1939, Ku was appointed as the Minister of Social Affairs and was placed in charge of all wartime social welfare projects. In 1940, the ministry was reorganized into the National Social Department where Ku continued to serve as Minister of National Government Social Affairs, a position he held until March 1949.
In 1941, Ku was in charge of casualty processing during the Japanese bombing of Chongqing and in 1944, he was in charge of Chinese military and civilian casualties on the Guangxi, Guizhou warfronts.
In 1945, Ku was elected to the Chinese Kuomintang Central Executive Committee and the 6th Standing Committee. He also served as Chairman of the Chinese Kuomintang Central Committee of agricultural workers.
In 1947, he began involvement with Chen Lifu, Fang Chih and the CC Clique and became active in the Shanghai political scene.
Ku retreated with the nationalists to Taiwan in 1949.
In January 1950, Ku was appointed Minister of the Interior. He served as Director of the Mainland Disaster Relief Organization together with Fang Chih. Together with Fang, Ku set up the Free China Relief Agency, and the Sino-Laotian Friendship Society and the ROC branch of the Asian People's Anti Communist League. The pair were active in South Korea, Vietnam, Burma, Laos, Camboadia and Thailand on various KMT special projects.[1] [2] [3]
In 1951, he was appointed as a presidential adviser and in 1952, he was elected to the 7th Standing Committee.
Ku died on 11 December 1993 in Taipei at the age of 91.
Ku married and had five children: