Background
Nothing is known about his background.
Nothing is known about his background.
He was educated locally.
Tsou was among those leaders who met in Peking in September 1949 to form a government. The meetings were held under the auspices of the CPPCC, on which Tsou served as a delegate from the Northeast Liberated Areas. Although he was not given a position on the permanent CPPCC National Committee, he was appointed (in October) as director of the Information Administration under the Government Administration Council headed by Premier Chou En-lai. Extremely little is known about the Information Administration, an organization at the ministerial level, but it is clear from Tsou’s career that it was involved in intelligence work. Apparently the collection of intelligence on foreign countries was one of its chief functions because an organ under its jurisdiction was known as the “External Affairs Investigation and Research Bureau. Possibly in an effort to conceal its intelligence activities, the regime abolished the administration in August 1952.
When Tsou was appointed to the Information Administration in 1949, he was officially identified by the Communists as the “former” secretary-general of the previously mentioned Social Affairs Department of the Party Central Committee. At this same time, Tsou former chief, Li K’o-nung，was also described in connection with the Social Affairs Department. Apparently these are the last open references to this intelligence organization by the Communists in the post-1949 period. But over the next few years there were continual references to the department from non-Communist sources, with Tsou almost always mentioned as a senior official.
As already noted, the Information Administration was abolished in August 1952. Not long after Tsou was identified in a new post, this time subordinate to the military hierarchy. He became director of the Liaison Department of the People's Revolutionary Military Council (PRMC), holding the post until the PRMC was abolished with the formation of the constitutional government in 1954. At the time of this governmental reorganization in September 1954, Tsou did not receive any formal government post, but in December of that year he represented the Party on the Second CPPCC (19541959), a post to which he was re-elected in April 1959 for the Third CPPCC (1959-1964), and then again for the Fourth CPPCC, which first met in December 1964. On the last occasion, he was elevated to the governing body of the CPPCC, the Standing Committee.
In February 1962 Tsou served on the funeral committee for his long-time superior in intelligence work, Li K’o-nung. He also served on funeral committees for trade specialist Chi Ch'ao-ting in August 1963 and Kan Szu-ch’i a deputy director of the PLA General Political Department, in February 1964. Finally, in October 1964 the Political Science and Law Association of China held its fourth congress; Tsou was elected to the new national council. Aside from official appointments, these are among the extremely few references to Tsou in recent years, clearly a reflection of the secrecy of his work.
In February 1958, in an effort to handle the increasingly complex field of Chinese foreign relations, Peking established a new commission under the State Council, known as the Commission for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries. In the following month, Tsou was named a vice-chairman, a post he continues to hold. As is often the case, the Chinese have governmental organizations and “people’s” organizations with nearly identical titles. In 1954, a “Chinese People’s Association for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries” had been established, it was reorganized in April 1959, at which time Tsou was added as a Standing Committee member, and then in June 1961 he was elevated to a vice-chairmanship. Presumably Tsou is able to utilize both the governmental and “people’s” organizations for intelligence work. The idea that he retains some high-level Party intelligence post was strongly suggested in mid-1963 when lie was identified in the Communist press as a “responsible member” of a department directly under the Party Central Committee. There can be little doubt that this referred to some intelligence organization.
