The Case of Wang Jingwei Assassinating Prince Regent Zaifeng

In April 1910, Wang Jingwei, a prominent member of the Tongmenghui revolutionary alliance, plotted to assassinate Prince Regent Zaifeng in Beijing to spark an anti-Qing uprising. Wang and his associates buried a large bomb under a bridge on Zaifeng’s daily route. The plot was discovered when a passerby spotted suspicious activity, leading to a police investigation. Wang Jingwei, Huang Fusheng, and others were arrested. Their trial captivated public attention as Wang delivered a stirring defense, unrepentantly condemning the Qing dynasty’s misrule and advocating for revolution. The case exposed the lengths revolutionaries would go to overthrow the imperial system and revealed the Qing court’s precarious hold on power amid rising dissent.

The High Court of Justice imposed life imprisonment on Wang Jingwei and Huang Fusheng, rather than the expected death penalty, influenced by both Wang’s defiant eloquence and the Qing government’s fear of creating revolutionary martyrs. They were released after the Wuchang Uprising in 1911.

The core dispute centered on whether Wang Jingwei’s act constituted common criminal homicide conspiracy or a heroic political offense against despotic rule. Wang argued his aim was national salvation, not personal malice, challenging the court’s moral and legal authority. The case raised questions about the legitimacy of tyrannicide and the boundaries between political crime and terrorism.

The failed assassination immensely elevated Wang Jingwei’s national fame as a revolutionary hero, with his courtroom speech widely circulated. It deepened the rift between the Qing court and constitutional reformers, while intensifying revolutionary fervor. The Qing’s relatively lenient sentence was seen as weakness, further eroding its authority and hastening its collapse months later.