Yang Kuiyi was born in the
Hubei Province during the reign of the
Guangxu Emperor and joined the local
New Army in 1903. In 1912, he studied at the infantry department of the
Imperial Japanese Army Academy. Upon his return to
Republic of China he held various administrative positions in his native Hubei Province since the early 1930s and also rose through the ranks of the
National Revolutionary Army. In 1939, he defected to the side of
Wang Jingwei and joined his new pro-Japanese
regime, proclaimed in
Nanjing. When the Reorganized National Government was formally inaugurated in 1940, he was made Chief of General Staff and a member of several government committees. In 1942, he was made governor of the Hubei province, with the provincial government being reorganized in 1943. In 1945, Yang was appointed to head the National Military Council, a post that he held for the rest of the war. He was executed in 1946. == Sources ==