Mao Zuquan

Mao was born during the late Qing dynasty in 1883, in Jiangsu, Republic of China and of Haimen ancestry. He was a well-educated scholar who studied in neighboring Japan as a student during his youth. Shortly after returning to China, he entered politics and quickly excelled through the ranks.

Mao was eventually appointed as a member of the Nationalist Party of China's Kuomintang National Assembly in 1912. The National Assembly (Chinese: 國民大會; pinyin: Guómín Dàhuì) refers to several parliamentary bodies that existed in the Republic of China during the early 1900s. He quickly rose through the ranks and became a prominent individual in the Chinese government and Chinese society; in 1924, he was chosen by China's Kuomintang Central Committee as a candidate for the position of the executive committee member.

In his later years, Mao served a number of political positions in the Nationalist Chinese government. He was appointed as the head of the Jiangsu Civil Administration on Mainland China under the rule of the government of the Republic of China. He also served as Nationalist China Secretary of the Official Punishment Committee as well as the Secretary-General to the President of the Republic of China. He also served as the Presidential National Policy Consultant as well as Nationalist Republic of China's first Minister of the Ministry of Justice (Republic of China).[4][3]

The Chinese Civil War (1927–49) forced the Nationalists Chinese to retreat to the island of Taiwan after the victory of the Chinese Communists in Mainland China. Mao Zhuquan stayed behind on the mainland, rather than relocate with Chiang Kai-shek and his troops to the island with the rest of his family. In 1950, he was arrested by the Communist Party of China while in Shanghai and was subsequently imprisoned for refusing to cooperate with the Communists. In 1952, he was found dead at the age of 64, in a jail cell as a result of a hunger strike in opposition to the Communists.[3][4] He was subsequently buried in an unmarked mass grave in Shanghai, China.

Archives of his work as well as his photos can be found in the Presidential Palace in Nanjing, Jiangsu, China, which housed the Office of the President of the Republic of China since 1927 until the capital was relocated to Taipei in 1949. The palace now houses a museum called the China Modern History Museum where Mao's work can be found.

Many of Mao Zhuquan's family members were able to evacuate to the island of Taiwan during the Chinese Civil War with the help of Chiang Kai-sheck and the Republic of China Army. His living descendants now reside in China, Taiwan, as well as the United States, in Los Angeles, California and Houston, Texas.