Zeng Shan 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

Long March

The Long March was a massive military retreat undertaken by the Red Army of the Communist Party of China, the forerunner of the People's Liberation Army, to evade the pursuit of the Kuomintang army. There was not one Long March, but a series of marches, as various Communist armies in the south...

, and later ran a school for the children of high cadres. His son, Zeng Qinghong

Zeng Qinghong

Zeng Qinghong was the Vice-President of the People's Republic of China from 2003 to 2008. He became a member of the Politburo Standing Committee and member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee during the 2002 16th Party Congress. Although he was formally ranked fifth in the nine PSC...

, was Vice President of the People’s Republic of China (2003-08)

Zeng backed Mao Zedong

Mao Zedong

Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...

 in the Jiangxi Soviet

Jiangxi Soviet

The Chinese Soviet Republic , also translated as the Soviet Republic of China or the China Soviet Republic, and often referred to in historical literature as the Jiangxi Soviet , was a state established in November 1931 by the future Communist Party of China leader Mao...

 confrontation with Li Lisan

Li Lisan

Lǐ Lìsān was an early leader of the Chinese communists, and the top leader of the Chinese Communist Party from 1928 to 1930, member of Polit Bureau, and later member of Central Committee.-Early years:...

, and was at one point Chairman of the Chinese Soviet Republic government. He was a key player in the violent 1931 purge of the so-called Anti-Bolshivik (AB) Corps

Zeng did not participate in the Long March, but rather stayed behind to command a small guerilla unit on the Guangdong-Guangxi border. At the end of the Civil War, he was serving in the Third Field Army’s 10th Army under Ye Fei, 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.