Zeng Shan

Zeng Shan (Tseng Shan, 1904-72) was a Chinese Communist military commander and security minister. His wife, Deng Liujin, was one of the handful of women to participate in the Long March, and later ran a school for the children of high cadres. His son, Zeng Qinghong, was Vice President of the People’s Republic of China (2003-08)

Zeng backed Mao Zedong in the Jiangxi Soviet confrontation with Li Lisan, and was at one point Chairman of the Chinese Soviet Republic government. [ Schwartz, Benjamin, "Chinese Communism and the Rise of Mao", Harper & Row (New York: 1951), p. 175.] He was a key player in the violent 1931 purge of the so-called Anti-Bolshivik (AB) Corps [Fewsmith, Joseph, "Generational Transition in China", "The Washington Quarterly", Autumn 2002 (25:4), p. 30(http://www.twq.com/02autumn/fewsmith.pdf).]

Zeng did not participate in the Long March, but rather stayed behind to command a small guerilla unit on the Guangdong-Guangxi border. [Whitson, William and Huang Chen-hsia, "The Chinese High Command: A History of Communist Militry Politics, 1927-71", Praeger (New York: 1973), p. 229.] At the end of the Civil War, he was serving in the Third Field Army’s 10th Army under Ye Fei, [Whitson, Chart F.] and became a member of the 8th and 9th Central Committees. He served a Minister of Internal Affairs (i.e., security) from 1960 to October 1969. [Lamb, Malcolm, "Directory of Officials and Organizations in China, 1968-83," M.E. Sharpe (Armonk: 1983), p. 198.]

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