Lu Zhengxiang's Diplomatic Contribution

Lu Zhengxiang's outstanding contribution is to build China's modern diplomatic system. 19 12 10 The Official System of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs passed by the National Assembly was written by Lu Zhengxiang. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has "one place, one room, one hall and four departments": Secretariat, Counselor's Office, General Office, Foreign Affairs Office, Trade Office, Communication Office and General Administration Office. Under the minister, there are newly established chief secretaries and four secretaries, who are responsible for the relevant affairs of Britain, Japan, France and Germany respectively, while the counselor is responsible for the research and drafting of laws and treaties.

When Lu Zhengxiang was in charge of foreign affairs, he persuaded Yuan Shikai to agree to abolish the "recommendation system" for diplomats in the Qing Dynasty (diplomats were recommended by senior officials), prohibit other departments from "unblocking" personnel to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and insist on selecting "diplomats who don't make jokes". After Lu took office, he formulated the new Provisional Regulations on Consular Appointment of Diplomats. First, dismiss all the remaining personnel in the Ministry, and then re-examine them according to their majors. No foreign languages and foreign affairs majors were appointed, and Yuan Shikai's nephew left. Gu Weijun was recruited into the Ministry as soon as he came back from his freshman year at Columbia University. As for foreign pavilions, Lu Zhengxiang abolished the old rule that ambassadors arranged the personnel and financial rights of embassies as a whole in the Qing Dynasty, and the budget of foreign pavilions was changed to the annual appropriation and final accounts of the central government, and the official staff of foreign pavilions must be appointed by the central government.

To sum up, during the period of the Republic of China, warlords fought in melee, and the degree of specialization of central ministries was very low. Only the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stood out, trained many outstanding diplomats and won more rights for China, a "weak country", thus laying the foundation for China's diplomatic modernization, among which Lu Zhengxiang made the greatest contribution.

Lu Zhengxiang is famous for signing Article 2 1 and the Sino-Japanese Treaty of Versailles, so he is often criticized for his negative comments. But the actual situation may be more complicated.

First, according to more rigorous research and reports, it is pointed out that the signing of "Article 21" between China and Japan was presided over by Vice Foreign Minister Cao Rulin. President Yuan Shikai directly pressured Cao to sign the contract as soon as possible, while those who participated in the negotiations helped to cancel the most unfavorable Article 5 (regarding Article 21, some people think that Japan pressured to declare war, and Yuan Shikai was forced to accept some terms).

2. 19 19 (ambassador to the United States), Wang (representative of Guangzhou government), (ambassador to Britain), (ambassador to Belgium) and others went to Paris to attend the World War I Peace Conference (Paris Peace Conference). When the Shandong issue broke out, Japan insisted on inheriting the rights and interests of Germany, the defeated country, and the May 4th Movement took place in China. The victorious country ignored China's opposition and accepted the Japanese request. Under the great protests in China and the government's instructions, the China delegation failed to sign the peace treaty and became the only signatory among the victorious countries. As we all know, Lu Zhengxiang didn't preside over the work of the China Mission in the later period of the Peace Conference, so the just performance of boycotting the signing was mostly attributed to Gu Weijun.

During 1945, a reporter from China went to Belgium to interview Lu Zhengxiang. It is reported that Lu Zhengxiang once gave a short and famous warning about the future state of the country: "Weak countries have no justice and weak countries have no diplomacy".