Meritorious Service Record

Song Jiaoren was a journalist and revolutionary who co-founded the Chinese Revolutionary Alliance (中國同盟會) with Sun Wen (孫文) and played a leading role in the Xinhai Revolution (辛亥革命). Following the establishment of the Republic of China, he was deeply involved in founding the Kuomintang. From an early stage, he maintained ties with Shin Gyu-sik and participated in the New Asia Tongji Society (新亞同濟社), significantly influencing the Korean independence movement.
In 1912, Shin Gyu-sik and other Korean independence activists established the New Asia Tongji Society in Shanghai to recruit Chinese revolutionaries. This organization evolved from the Tongji Society (同濟社), which had been formed by Park Eun-sik (朴殷植), Kim Kyu-sik (金奎植), Shin Chae-ho (申采浩), and Cho So-ang (趙素昻). The society’s objective was to connect Korean and Chinese revolutionaries, foster friendship between the two nations, and promote Korea’s independence. Prominent Kuomintang figures such as Song Jiaoren, Hu Hanmin (胡漢民), Lu Tianmin (呂天民), Tang Shaoyi (唐紹儀), and Chen Guofu (陳果夫) were also members.
The efforts of the New Asia Tongji Society contributed to the formal establishment of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea in April 1919.
When Song Jiaoren was assassinated, numerous Korean independence activists mourned his death. A letter from Kim Jin-yong (金晉庸) to An Chang-ho (安昌浩) expressed deep sorrow over the loss of “our dear friend Song Jiaoren” and lamented that “the unlawful murder ordered by Yuan Shikai (袁世凱) and his treacherous dealings with foreign powers will have a profound impact on our cause.”
The South Korean government posthumously awarded him the Order of Merit for National Foundation (Presidential Medal) in 1968.