Liang Cheng

Liang Cheng first knew the United States as a schoolboy. Sent abroad with the Chinese Educational Mission in 1875, he attended Phillips Academy from 1878 until the program's recall in 1881. He later entered foreign service, working with missions to the United States, Spain, and Peru and accompanying Chinese representatives during the Shimonoseki peace negotiations. His attendance at Queen Victoria's jubilee in 1897 brought a British honorary knighthood. ¹

Returning to Washington as minister, Liang pursued the use of surplus Boxer indemnity payments for education. On April 10, 1905, he requested authority to seek a refund after learning that Secretary of State John Hay considered the American assessment excessive. His proposals connected the return of money to schools and study in the United States. Negotiations continued for two years, until the American decision announced in 1907. ²

The educational arrangements that followed supported the Office of Overseas Education in 1909 and Tsinghua College in 1911. After leaving Washington, he served as minister to Germany from 1910 to 1912 and spent his final years in Guangdong and Hong Kong. ^{1, 2}