Thio Thiam Tjong

Thio was born in 1896 in Semarang, Central Java, into a prominent family on both sides. His father, the wealthy businessman Thio Sing Liong (1871–1940), was a third-generation Peranakan Chinese and the founder of Handel Maatschappij Thio Sing Liong, a leading export–import company. In contrast to his father's business background, Thio's mother – Tan Tien Nio – hailed from the 'Cabang Atas' gentry as a granddaughter of Tan Ing Kie, Kapitein-titulair der Chinezen (1835–1895). Through his mother, Thio was therefore a direct descendant of Tan Yok Sing, Kapitein der Chinezen of Semarang (1737–1800) under the Dutch East India Company (VOC). Tan Yok Sing came to the Indies in the mid-1700s as a descendant of the Tan (Chen in Mandarin) family from Zhangzhou, Fujian. This is the family that is famous for its most prominent member Tan Yong Hua or Chen Yong Hua (陳永華), who served as the advisor to Koxinga in 1666, contributed much to the conquest of Taiwan from the Dutch VOC and later the administration of Taiwan. Like most in his social class, Thio had an entirely Dutch language-based education in Semarang, then at a Hogere Burgerschool (HBS, secondary school) in Leiden in the Netherlands. He studied engineering at Delft University, but left prior to graduating in 1922 to join his father's business. Following his father's retirement in 1933, Thio took over the family business and expanded it. He was also a board member of a number of other companies. ==Public life==

Thio emerged as a community leader in the late 1920s, and played an important role in the Chung Hwa Congress of 1927, which led to the founding in 1928 of the political association Chung Hwa Hui (CHH). The influential group was later criticised by left-wing critics as the 'Packard Club', a supposed cipher for the interests of the colonial Chinese establishment, most notably the conglomerate Kian Gwan, owned by Thio's in-laws, the Oei family. When the Dutch returned to the Indies in March 1946, Thio was appointed as Advisor in the Emergency Cabinet of the Netherlands Indies Civil Administration (NICA) under his personal friend, H. van Mook, Acting Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies. The revolution was both a war of independence against NICA and an internal social revolution against the pro-Dutch established elite. PT, seen by many as a successor of the pre-war CHH, aimed to represent the political aspirations of the Chinese-Indonesian community at the conclusion of the revolution and the handover of power from NICA to the new Indonesian authorities. After Dutch recognition of Indonesian independence, PT was transformed in 1950 under Thio's presidency into Partai Demokrasi Tionghoa Indonesia (PDTI). Liem Koen Hian, founder of the left-wing, pre-revolutionary Partai Tionghoa Indonesia, dismissed PT and PDTI – as he had CHH – as elitist and unable to deal with native Indonesians. In post-colonial Indonesia, PDTI's association with CHH doomed the party, and Thio's background in the pre-revolutionary political establishment meant that he could not play a meaningful role in new politics of the post-revolutionary Republic of Indonesia. Thio Thiam Tjong died in exile in the Netherlands on 22 September 1969, and left no children. ==See also==