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His high legal attainments made Wu Ting Fang specially fitted for the post of Commissioner for the Revision of Laws, and he did excellent work in this connection. Then came further foreign appointments.
In 1905, he was appointed to the Bench of the International Court of Arbitration at The Hague. Two years later he was back in Washington as Minister to the United States, Spain, Peru and Cuba.
In the beginning of 1911, there were rumblings of a coming storm in China and with the overthrow of the Manchu Dynasty, Wu Ting Fang returned to pledge his allegiance to Sun Yat-sen. He was the Chief Revolutionary Delegate to the Shanghai Peace Conference in 1911 and was then appointed Minister for Foreign Affairs and Justice at Nanking.
It afterwards transpired that Wu had played a big part in the success of the revolution, being one of the chief directors of propaganda.
In after years, when strong differences between the North and the South flared up in an open quarrel, Wu associated himself with the South in opposing the military domination of the northern Government. In some quarters he was called a traitor, but the southern blood was strong in his veins and the old Ng Choy asserted itself over Wu Ting-fang. When the Canton Military Government was set up, Wu became Minister for Foreign Affairs and he held the portfolio until 1921...
A great career came to an end soon afterwards. Fortunately, the general strike, and boycott was declared after his death, for it would have pained him grievously to see ill-feeling between the British and the Chinese.
The late Mr. C. C. Wu, who died in Hongkong recently, was a son of Wu Ting-fang. He followed in the footsteps of his father, being Minister to Washington and Minister for Foreign Affairs in Nanking.