Background
Chao Heng-ti was born in Hsiang-tan (Xiangtan), Hunan, China in 1880.
Chao Heng-ti was born in Hsiang-tan (Xiangtan), Hunan, China in 1880.
Mr. Chao graduated from the Japanese Military Cadets’ College in Tokyo, Japan, specializing in artillery.
During the 1911 Revolution, he joined the Kuomintang party and was appointed commander of a revolutionary army in Hunan. After the establishment of the Republic, Chao Heng-ti went to Peking and owing to his intimate relation with the Kuomintang he was arrested by Yuan Shih-kai, but later released through the efforts of Tan Yen-kai (then Governor of Hunan).
In 1916 Mr. Chao was appointed Commander-in-Chief of Hunan Provincial Forces. He became Military Governor of Hunan in 1922. In the period from 1923 to 1926 Chao Heng-ti served as a Civil Governor of Hunan.
During the Northern Punitive Expediotion of the NationaIist Army in 1926, he allied with the Peking Government and was defeated by Tang Shen-chi of the Southern Forces. Mr. Chao lived in retirement since 1926.