In Chinese culture, the word hanjian is a pejorative term for a traitor to the Han Chinese state and, to a lesser extent, Han ethnicity. The word hanjian is distinct from the general word for traitor, which could be used for any country or ethnicity. As a Chinese term, it is a digraph of the Chinese characters for "Han" and "traitor". Han is the majority ethnic group in China; and Jian, in Chinese legal language, primarily referred to illicit sex. Implied by this term was a Han Chinese carrying on an illicit relationship with the enemy. Hanjian is often worded as "collaborator" in the West.
Nanking residents with armbands of the Japanese flag
Chinese civilians assisting Japanese soldiers
A Chinese propaganda poster titled "Fate of Hanjians", published by the Capital City Resistance War Supporters Association of All Citizens, was posted throughout Nanjing soon after the Battle of Nanking. Clockwise from top right: a hanjian being beaten by a mob; a hanjian who sends a signal to enemy aircraft will die in an air raid; the severed head of a hanjian put on display as a warning to others; a hanjian will be arrested and shot.
Wang Jingwei
Wang Zhaoming, widely known by his pen name Wang Jingwei, was a Chinese politician who was president of the Reorganized National Government of the Republic of China, a puppet state of Japan. He was initially a member of the left wing of the Kuomintang, leading a government in Wuhan in opposition to the right-wing government in Nanjing, but later became increasingly anti-communist after his efforts to collaborate with the Chinese Communist Party ended in political failure.
Wang Jingwei
Former residence of Wang Jingwei in Nanjing.
Wang Jingwei and Chiang Kai-Shek in 1926
Wang Jingwei (second from left) and Chen Bijun (far left) in British Malaya, 1935.