Jin Yuzhang

Jin was born in Beiping (Beijing) on May 3, 1942. His father Aisin-Gioro Puren was the youngest brother of Aisin-Gioro Puyi, who at the time reigned as "emperor" of the Japanese puppet state Manchukuo and who had previously been the last emperor of the Qing dynasty.

Jin was educated at China University of Geosciences. After graduation he worked at the Qinghai Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources from 1968 to 1985, before returning to Beijing to work at the Chongwen district Bureau of Environmental Protection.

In 1999 he was elected to the Beijing People's Political Consultative Conference. He retired as vice-director of the Chongwen district government in Beijing in 2008.[1]

The last published succession rule for the Aisin Gioro clan, adopted in 1937, provides for succession by male descendants, brothers, and then half-brothers.[4] As such, when Puyi died childless in 1967, leadership of the clan initially passed to his younger brother Pujie. While Pujie had two daughters, these were ineligible to succeed under the male-only succession rules, and as such Pujie's death in 1994 saw leadership pass to first Jin Yuzhang's father and then in 2015 to Jin himself. Jin claimed in 2000 that he had only ever visited the Forbidden City one time in his whole life.[5]

Jin married a Han Chinese woman in 1974[6]. The couple have a daughter, Jin Xin (金鑫) (b. 1976), but no sons. As women are ineligible for succession, his heir would be his younger brother Jin Yuquan (金毓峑) (b. 1946). However, neither Yuquan nor their youngest brother Jin Yulan (金毓岚) (b. 1948) have any sons either. Unless one of the three elderly brothers (implausibly) produces a son, the "Manchukuo branch" (Zaifeng branch) of the House of Aishin-Gioro will become extinct upon their deaths. The next head of the Aishin-Gioro clan would have to be sought from among their second cousins descended from Prince Yixuan, if any are still alive by that time.[7]