Yuan Geng

Born in Bao'an County, now part of Shenzhen, he joined the Chinese Communist Party at age 21 and fought guerrilla operations against the Japanese occupation army in the Dongjiang (East River) Column of the CPC-led Guangdong People's Anti-Japanese Aggression Guerrilla Force from March 1939. In 1942 he led a noted rescue operation of 800 people, and in 1944 became head of the Dongjiang Column's liaison division. In this capacity he provided crucial information to the US military (Pacific Fleet and 14th Army Air Force) about Japanese operations in Guangdong.

In September 1945, he created a liaison office for the Communist guerrillas in Hong Kong, which later became the Xinhua News Agency office and as such, the de facto embassy of the People's Republic of China in the territory after 1949. From 1945 to 1949 he went on to fight the Chinese Civil War as an artillery officer.

From November 1949, Yuan Geng pursued a career as an intelligence officer, seconded to Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam in 1950, then as Consul in Jakarta from 1952. In 1955, he was in charge of security for the Chinese delegation at the Bandung Conference, and was credited with saving Premier Zhou Enlai from the KMT-led assassination plot that resulted in the airplane crash of the Kashmir Princess. He was imprisoned in April 1968 during the Cultural Revolution, in Beijing's Qincheng Prison.

In October 1975, he was rehabilitated and appointed Deputy Director of the Bureau of Foreign Affairs in the Ministry of Communications (or Transport).

Yuan Geng went on to create a number of state-owned enterprises which participated greatly in the prosperity of the Pearl River Delta, most of them directly to support economic activity in Shekou. In January 1980, he established China International Marine Containers.

In July 1982 he created China Nanshan Development (Group) Incorporation, China's first Sino-foreign joint-stock joint venture, for the development of an oil terminal.

He followed up with the creation of Shenzhen Chiwan Wharf Holdings Limited, now known as Chiwan Base, as a joint-venture with Singaporean partners.

In 1984 he created China Southern Glass Holding Limited, now China's largest architectural glass manufacturer.

In 1987 he created China Merchants Bank, the first joint-stock commercial bank on China's mainland, with support from the People's Bank of China Governor, Ms Chen Muhua.

In May 1988, he steered the creation of Ping An, the first joint-stock insurance company on the Chinese mainland, initially with support from China Merchants Bank.