John Leighton Stuart - Political Activities

Political Activities

Stuart supported Chinese nationalism. He was sympathetic to students and faculty at Yenching who participated in May Fourth Movement (1919–1921) and May Thirtieth Movement (1925). He favored the Northern Expedition (1926-1927) against the warlord factions in Beijing. He even led a protest with Yenching students against the Japanese invasion in Manchuria (1937). When the invaders overran Beijing in 1937, the Japanese ordered Stuart to fly the puppet regime flag at the Yenching University campus and offer his personal "thanks" to the Japanese militia for the institution's "liberation." Stuart, well known among Chinese as a man with a strong moral conscience, declined without the slightest hesitation, sending a fearless note to the Japanese commander: "We are refusing to comply with these orders."

He forged ties with the leaders in the Nationalist Party, particularly Chiang Kai-shek, since they both spoke the same Zhejiang dialect, and leaders in the Communist Party, some of whom were graduates of Yenching. He recommended U.S. aid to China during 1937-1941. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese incarcerated Stuart in Beijing for 3 years and 8 months (December 1941 - August 1945).

His deep involvement with China's politics, education and culture won him respect among Chinese intellectuals and students during the 1930s and 1940s. Even Wen Yiduo, a scholar whom Mao Zedong and the Chinese communists often praised, expressed his respect and admiration for John Leighton Stuart in his famous last speech. Ironically, when Wen Yiduo's last speech was included in Chinese textbooks in Mainland China, the paragraph praising John Leighton Stuart was deleted.