Du Xigui

Du Xigui was a Chinese admiral during the late Qing dynasty and the Warlord Era.

Biography

Born in Fuzhou, he graduated from the Nanjing naval college in 1902. In July 1911, Du was appointed the commander of a vessel. His crew followed orders from Yuan Shikai to sail up the Yangtze and help put down the Wuchang Uprising later that year. However, when he saw that the Qing empire was collapsing, Du and his sailors mutinied, joining the Republican government. The uprising was what forced the Qing naval minister Sa Zhenbing to resign his post. After Yuan became the head of the government in Beijing, Du continued to serve him.
In 1922, he was made chief of the navy and helped the Zhili clique defeat Zhang Zuolin. In the spring of 1923, Shanghai's fleet rebelled and Du took responsibility by resigning but was recalled in November. In 1924, he commanded the Yangtze fleet of Jiangsu and defeated the Anhui clique's Zhejiang fleet led by Lin Jianzhang. Several ships defected to his side giving him control of Shanghai's waters.
In 1926, Du served concurrently as acting president, premier, and minister of the navy. In 1927, with Du's backing, the Chinese navy defected to the Kuomintang; however Du lacked Chiang Kai-shek's trust and subsequently resigned from active service. The Nanjing Nationalist government government later employed him and sent him on an inspection tour of foreign navies. He returned to China in 1930, becoming head of the naval academy in Fuzhou. When the Fujian Rebellion broke out, Du declined to offer support and instead moved to Shanghai, where he died on 28 December 1933.