Jacques Guillermaz served as military attache in China from 1937 to 1943, then returned to fight for the liberation of France in 1943, served once more in China from 1945 to 1951, and went on to advise the French government on policy toward Asia.
17 Facts About Jacques Guillermaz
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Jacques Guillermaz is particularly known for his studies of Chinese Communist Party history.
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Jacques Guillermaz's honors include reaching the rank of General in the French Army and receiving the Academie francaise Prix Alberic Rocheron in 1969 for Histoire du parti communiste chinois and again in 1973 for his book, Le parti communiste chinois au pouvoir.
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The Second Sino-Japanese War erupted just as he arrived, and though France was not a belligerent in that war, instead of withdrawing, Jacques Guillermaz took the opportunity to travel in wartorn North China before making his way to Chongqing, the wartime capital, by way of Shanghai and Hanoi.
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Jacques Guillermaz spent the years from 1941 to 1943 in Chongqing, then left China to join the Free French Army in Algiers.
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Jacques Guillermaz fought in the liberation of Elba and of France in 1944, commanding first a company and then a battalion which repelled a German counteroffensive.
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Jacques Guillermaz later invited Galula to work with him in China.
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In 1945 Jacques Guillermaz was sent to China as military attache, a post which he held in Nanjing for the next six years, and saw the 1949 takeover of the city by the People's Liberation Army in 1948.
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Jacques Guillermaz retired from active duty in the army in 1958.
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Jacques Guillermaz used his knowledge of China and of Chinese leaders in advising the French government, which saw the new government in China as a threat to the French colonies in Indochina.
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Jacques Guillermaz saw that the French could take advantage of the divisions within the communist movement in Asia.
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Colonel Jacques Guillermaz let the Chinese leaders know that normal relations might be possible if Beijing played a constructive role.
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In Beijing, Jacques Guillermaz met and married Kirsti Ritopeura, a Finn.
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France had a long and distinguished tradition of sinology which focused on classical China, but Jacques Guillermaz urged the study of contemporary China.
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The Centre produced a number of publications, conferences, radio and television appearances, and a Jacques Guillermaz contributed a series of articles to the influential Paris journals Le Monde and Le Figaro.
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Jacques Guillermaz donated his collection of an estimated 2,500 volumes, predominately Chinese language works, to the Municipal Library of Lyon because of its long association with Chinese students and China.
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Jacques Guillermaz died there in 1998 at the age of 87.