Alfred Sze
Alfred Sze first worked in the Washington legation as a student interpreter in 1893. He studied at Cornell, accompanied Yang Ju to the first Hague peace conference, and later held railway and provincial administrative posts. As minister to Britain during the First World War, he joined China’s delegation to the Paris Peace Conference before taking charge of the Washington legation in 1921. 1
Sze headed the Chinese delegation to the Washington Conference, where negotiations produced the Nine Power Treaty and a settlement of the Shandong question. He also negotiated arrangements for remitted American Boxer Indemnity funds to support education. After another London posting and work at the League of Nations during the Manchurian crisis, he returned to Washington. When the two countries raised their missions to embassies in 1935, he became China’s first ambassador to the United States. During the Second World War he helped administer Chinese defense procurement in Washington. 1
Washington Appointments
Sources
- Shih Chao-chi (Alfred Sze)
Biography in English
- U.S. Department of State: Chinese diplomatic representation
Appointment and credentials chronology; its modern page heading does not identify the government represented by every historical entry.
- Republic of China blue-sky, white-sun and red-field flag
Nationalist-government representation, including the R.O.C. embassy after 1949 through the end of 1978. The P.R.C. flag does not apply to these appointments.
- Office of the Historian: recognition and relations with China
Separates government representation, U.S. recognition, and the 1979 change in diplomatic relations.
- Alfred Sze — mission record (1921–1928)
- Alfred Sze — mission record (1921–1928)
- Alfred Sze conveys the Nationalist declaration, July 1928
Contemporaneous evidence of the government transition during Sze’s appointment.
- Alfred Sze to the Secretary of State, 29 December 1928
Represented the Beijing government and continued through the 1928 Nationalist transition. In December 1928 he expressly acted for the National Government of the Republic of China. Both Republican flags are shown without inventing an exact Washington flag-change date.
- Republic of China five-color flag (Beiyang government)
The Washington legation represented the Beijing government in the early Republic. The July 1912 official notification specifies five equal stripes, red, yellow, blue, white and black, in 4:3 proportions. The southern government’s earlier use of the white-sun flag is not applied retroactively to these envoys.
Biography checked 2026-10-28.
Cite or Reuse This Biography
Alfred Sze. Chanceries Diplopedia. Biography reviewed 2026-10-28. Record 15dca2fbd737db54. https://chanceries.org/diplopedia/people/alfred-sze-92e3e9fa08/
Correction note
Send a correction to [email protected].