Hollington K. Tong

Hollington K. Tong trained as a journalist at Missouri and Columbia and worked for American newspapers before returning to China. He edited English language newspapers, including the China Press in Shanghai, and wrote an authorized biography of Chiang Kai-shek. During the war against Japan he became vice minister of information, managing overseas publicity and press censorship from the Nationalist government’s wartime headquarters. ¹

In Chongqing, Tong established accommodation for foreign correspondents and helped organize a journalism school with assistance from Columbia University. He accompanied Chiang to India and the Cairo Conference and joined Soong Mei-ling’s wartime visit to the United States. After serving as ambassador to Japan from 1952 to 1956, he moved to Washington, where public speaking formed an important part of his work until 1958. His book Dateline: China recounts his experiences in wartime information work. ¹