Zeng Sheng

Did You Know?

• Zhu De appointed Zeng as one of four representatives to accept the surrender of the Japanese army at the end of World War II.
• In 1955, Zeng was made a Rear Admiral in the People's Liberation Army Navy and played an instrumental role in developing the South Sea Fleet.
• In late August 1950, Zeng ordered 'the firing on all ships, regardless of flag, which approach within three Chinese li' of the Lema Islands.

Early life

Zeng Sheng was born to Hakka parents in a village in Huiyang, Guangdong, now a suburb of Shenzhen. His father, a former sailor who jumped ship in Australia, ran a grocery store in Sydney. Zeng attended primary school in Huiyang and Hong Kong, then moved to Sydney in 1923, attending Fort Street High School. He returned to China in 1928, completing secondary education at the affiliated high school of Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou. He entered the university in 1933, joined a student organization linked to the Chinese Communist Party, and became active in student politics. After trouble with authorities, he moved to Hong Kong in 1936, briefly working as a teacher and on the RMS Empress of Japan before resuming studies.

Military career

Zeng joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1936 and became secretary of the Hong Kong seamen's trade union in 1937. In 1938, after the Imperial Japanese Army attacked Guangdong, he requested to return to China to organize a guerrilla resistance. The unit initially had no weapons, pay, or reliable food; Zeng persuaded his mother to sell the family's land, reasoning that the Japanese would force them to flee anyway. Although formed with Kuomintang assistance and cooperating with Allied operations—including rescuing British POWs and downed airmen and aiding MI9 in the New Territories—the column also clashed with Kuomintang forces due to its Communist affiliation. The Chinese Communist Party launched the Guangdong-Hong Kong Rescue Operation; Zeng, following instructions from Liao Chengzhi, dispatched a team to Hong Kong while he handled reception in Baishilong Village. The first group of over fifty cultural figures, including Zou Taofen, Mao Dun, Liang Shuming, and Qian Jiaju, arrived at Baishilong Church. Over six months, the guerrillas rescued more than 800 such figures.

Later life

Zeng became Third Secretary of the Guangzhou Municipal Committee, Mayor of Guangzhou in 1960, and Deputy Governor of Guangdong Province. On 2 June 1962, he pleaded with rioting mobs in Guangzhou to remain calm and obedient. During the Cultural Revolution, as Mayor, he urged Red Guards not to abuse overseas Chinese from Hong Kong and Macau and was beaten. In spring 1967, he was secretly arrested and taken to Beijing, placed under house arrest in a regimental compound, then transferred to Qincheng Prison. He was held in a 10-square-meter cell with a flush toilet and washbasin, forced to sleep facing the door, unable to turn freely or turn off lights at night, leading to spinal deformity and bone hyperplasia. His diet was pickled vegetables and cornbread. Investigators interrogated him three to four hundred times over five years, focusing on the East River Column, its relationship with Luo Fengxiang, and cooperation with Allied intelligence stations. The Lin Biao and Jiang Qing clique labeled the column a traitorous, espionage, and bandit force, and called Zeng a major traitor and Japanese spy. His confession remained unchanged throughout seven years. The Taiwanese alleged he escaped the mainland on 25 June 1968 for Russia via Hong Kong with six other anti-Maoists. Zeng was jailed, released in 1974, and became Vice Minister of Transport, Transport Minister, and Advisor to the State Council.