politician Third Secretary Mayor of Canton
Tseng Sheng, whose original name was Tseng Chen-sheng, was born in Hui-yang, a small town in Kwangtung about 75 miles north of Hong Kong. During the Sino-Japanese War he gained a measure of fame by leading the East River (Tung-chiang) guerrilla forces, which in official Communist histories are placed on a par with the Hainan Island guerrilla units as one of the two most important guerrilla forces in south China.
During his childhood Tseng studied in Hong Kong, but because his father was a merchant with business interests in Australia, Tseng spent six years of his youth in Sydney where, presumably, he learned English. According to the Communist version, Tseng and his father returned to China (in about 1931) owing to the restrictions imposed on Orientals by the Australian government, after which Tseng studied sociology at Sun Yat-sen (Chung-shan) University in Canton, he reportedly graduated in 1934.
In the mid-1930's in Canton, Tseng was a leading agitator in the movement to resist the persistent Japanese incursions into China. The vigor of his work got him into trouble with the authorities and, fearing arrest, he fled to Hong Kong where he worked in a seamen's union. When the Japanese invaded Kwangtung in the fall of 1938, Tseng was instrumental in the organization of a guerrilla unit of about 1,200 men. Because it was initially composed mainly of Hong Kong seamen, it was known as the “Seamen’s Guerrilla Unit,” but soon afterward it was renamed the “Hui-Pao People’s AntiJapanese Guerrilla Column” (being named for the area in which it operated, in and around Tseng's native Hui-yang and neighboring Pao-an hsien). In 1939 his guerrillas were ostensibly incorporated into the Chinese Nationalist armies, but because Tseng's forces vied with the Nationalist armies for control in the East River area, an incident in 1940 brought about an eastward retreat by Tseng to the Hai-feng and Lu-feng areas, the former home of the Hailufeng Soviet led by P’eng P’ai in the 1920’s. In about 1940, Tseng allied his forces to those of a Communist guerrilla leader named Wang Tso- yao, who had been harassing the Japanese in operations along the Canton-Kowloon Railway not far from Tseng’s area of operation.
The merger was formalized in 1941 and the combined forces became known as the East River Column. They were probably already under Communist control, but all doubt was removed two years later in December 1943 when they publicly announced their subordination to the Party Central Committee, with Tseng as the commander and Wang Tso-yao as his deputy. The combined force reportedly consisted of about 10,000. When the British lost Hong Kong over the winter of 1941-42, these Communist guerrillas found themselves strategically located astride one of the major escape routes to Nationalist-hold areas in the Chinese interior. They were thereby able to facilitate the escape of a number of persons who fled overland, and both British and Nationalist Chinese officials are said to have commended Tseng for his help.
In the summer of 1945 elements of the 359th Brigade (see under Wang En-mao) pushed southward from north China to link up with the East River Column, with the latter ordered to move northward to a rendezvous point in north Kwang- tung near Kiangsi. The rendezvous was called off at the last moment when the war suddenly ended and the Red Army Headquarters in Yenan wanted Wang’s brigade to return to the north immediately. It is not known if Tseng had any direct role in this abortive venture, but a message reproduced in the Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung, dated August 15, 1945, indicates that Mao regarded Tseng’s force as an important part of his army. On that date Chu Te Japanese General Okamura Yasuji, the Japanese commander-in-chief in China, to send representatives to various Chinese Communist military commanders in order to surrender his troops. Regarding the Japanese troops in Kwangtung, Okamura was instructed to receive orders from General Tseng Sheng of the “Southern China Anti-Japanese Column.
In 1954 he was elected a deputy from Kwangtung to the First NPC (1954-1959), he was re-elected to the Second (1959-1964) as well as to the Third, which held its first session in December 1964-January 1965. In 1955 personal military ranks were given to PLA officers and military honors were also awarded. His name was on a composite namelist issued in September 1955, and therefore it is not possible to know which orders he received. His military record suggests, however, that he was granted the Order of Independence and Freedom (for service during the Sino-Japanese War) and the Order of Liberation (for his role in the battles against the Nationalists in the late 1940’s). He probably received his military rank at this time, although it was not until 1957 that he was identified with a military rank as a rear admiral, the equivalent of a two-star admiral in the U.S. Navy. Perhaps Tseng’s assignment in the Navy derives from his experience with seamen earlier in his lifeб the Chinese Communists were hard pressed to find naval talent because they had had little experience with naval warfare. By June 1959 Tseng was identified as the deputy commander of the South China Fleet, although the minuscule Chinese Communist Navy hardly merits so grandiose a designation. In any event, it is clear from Tseng's other activities that he spent only a minimum amount of time with official duties as a naval officer.
In December 1960 Tseng became the mayor of Canton; in May 1961 he was identified as a secretary of the Canton Party Committee, and then by March 1965 he was promoted to the position of third secretary. At the provincial level, Tseng was elected a vice-governor in December 1960 (the same time he became Canton mayor) and was identified as a member of the Kwangtung Party Standing Committee by March 1963. He also holds (or has held) other minor posts. For example, when the Kwangtung government established a special commission to reconstruct the 4, old revolutionary bases. Tseng was named as one of the vice-chairmen (October 1962) when a nationwide preparatory committee was established in June 1963 for participation in the Indonesian-sponsored “Games of the New Emerging Forces”（see under Jung Kao-t’ang), Tseng was appointed to membership, from at least November 1963 he has been a vice-chairman of the Kwangtung branch of the China Peace Committee and in January 1965 he was appointed to the preparatory committee for the Second National Sports Meet, scheduled for later in the year.
In 1949-50 Tseng assumed posts within the military, government, and Party organizations in South China. In October 1949 he was named to membership on both the Kwangtung Provincial People's Government Council and the Canton Military Control Commission, and in November he became third deputy commander of the Kwangtung Military District. He held all three posts under Yeh Chien-ying, one of the top leaders in south China in the takeover period. By mid-1950 Tseng had also been identified as a member of the South China Sub-bureau of the CCP. However, rather little was heard of him in the first years of the PRC, possibly because so many leaders from central and north China were sent to manage affairs in the south. But by the mid-1950's, when many of them had been reassigned to other areas of China, Tseng began to receive more prominent attention in the press.
