Tong Zeng

Tong Zeng (Chinese name: 童增，born June 3, 1956), Chinese scholar, social activist, chairman of China Federation of Demanding Compensation from Japan, and chairman of Zhongxiang Investment Co., Ltd.

File:Tong Zeng (in Beijing) was answering questions from Hong Kong media about the Japanese bombing of Chongqing 65 years ago. (5 June 2006).jpg

Tong Zeng (in Beijing) was answering questions from Hong Kong media about the Japanese bombing of Chongqing 65 years ago. (5 June 2006)

Tong Zeng wrote a paper in 1990, which triggered a civil movement to safeguard the dignity and rights of victims of World War II. Tong Zeng was suppressed by the Chinese government in the early stages. In the Asian Human Rights Watch (Page 14, items 14-16) published by Human Rights Watch (HRW) in 1994 and the China human rights report (Part I, Section D) published by the US State Department in 1996, both mentioned that Tong Zeng was unfairly treated. but, He had persisted in exposing the truth about various war and anti-humanity crimes for more than 30 years. He has been fighting for justice for the forgotten war victims. He gradually moved Chinese officialdom, and occasionally received official Chinese media coverage. He was nominated as a Nobel Peace Prize candidate for the first time in 2015.Tong Zeng's efforts have contributed to the opportunity for the two nations with deep grievances to face up to history and contributed to keeping the two countries away from war and promoting peace. This also coincides with the primary objective of the Nobel Peace Prize, which is to "promote the unity between the two countries". In 2017, Tong Zeng and Japanese lawyer Onodera Toshitaka were nominated as candidates for the Nobel Peace Prize. In 2019, Henrik Urdal, Norwegian political scientist and the current director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) independently predicted the "5-person shortlist" for the Nobel Peace Prize that year. In addition, a long list of predictions was attached.

Tong Zeng's name appeared the fifth, and US President Trump was the third. Tong Zeng was also the first to question the "Human Genome Project". In 1998, he publicly opposed the collection of blood samples of the elderly in China by some institutions in both China and the United States for the so-called purpose of studying the model and analysis of the mortality of the elderly. American Science Weekly reported on this matter, and Gale Onefile, ProQuest of Cambridge Information Group, The National Institutes of Health (NIH), Vdocuments, etc.,reprinted it. In 2003, Tong Zeng published the book "The Last Line of Defense", in which he proposed that "SARS might be produced in a laboratory or a genetic weapon aimed at the Chinese". In the preface of the book, Tong Zeng wrote: "Though the cause of the SARS virus has not been found, this book gives people a new thinking." The China Youth Daily firstly reported on it, and The Associated Press also reported on it. Follow up the report, the book can be found on Amazon. On July 6, 2019, Tong Zeng wrote to suggest that the United Nations should learn from the historical lessons of Einstein and other scientists who failed to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons after the war, and must prevent the militarization and weapons of biological genetic research in some countries. It is urgent to formulate international conventions to regulate their behavior and prohibit the use of human genetic resources to develop and manufacture biological and chemical weapons and genetic weapons. At the end of 2019, when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, Tong Zeng not only raised his concern to the Chinese government that the virus may be originated from laboratories, but also sent a letter to the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the World Health Organization，asking them to conduct thorough inspections all biological, viral, and genetic laboratories around the world. On March 18, 2020, Tong Zeng started a petition on a well-known international website to require UN agencies to thoroughly inspect the biological, virus, and genetic laboratories of the five permanent members states of the UN. He has obtained more than 10,000 signatures' support. On October 5, 2020, through the Facebook platform, Tong Zeng called on more than 50 countries around the world to submit a motion to the United Nations to verify the biological, virus, and genetic laboratories of the five permanent member states.

Early life

Tong Zeng's father, Tong Qiangmeng, graduated from the mechanical department of Chongqing University in 1956. His mother, Mu Huifang, graduated from accounting at a technical secondary school. Tong Zeng was born in Chongqing, China on June 3, 1956. When he was just one year old, his father was assigned to work in a factory after graduating from college. Then during the first year, he was sent to a labor camp for three years because of expressing opinions different from the government. Three years later, he was assigned manual labor for 19 years. Chen Zongshun (pseudonym: Liu Bai), a Chinese biographer, has published four books about Tong Zeng over the past 20 years, three of which record Tong Zeng's early life., In particular, the book "Tong Zeng: the hero of our times" published in Hong Kong in 2015 is still on the sales list of the publishing house. Chinese freelance writer Guan Mingqiang wrote a long documentary report on Tong Zeng in 1998, which also detailed his early life., In these works, Tong Zeng's early life is written in detail. Tong Zeng's childhood was greatly influenced by his grandfather. He sat next to his grandfather every night and listened to the old man teaching Chinese history. At the age of 10, Tong Zeng's cherished "History Book Series" was torn up by the people sent by the local government. After they left, Tong Zeng shed tears and hid the broken pages under his bed. He waited until the night came, then put these pages together to read.

Tong Zeng was deprived of his right to go to high school when he graduated from junior high school due to political reasons related to his father. In order to continue his studies, he went to a cousin's house far away from Chongqing, begged her for help, and became a temporary "student" in the middle school where she taught. In order to gain the goodwill of the school, Tong Zeng had to do heavy physical labor besides studying. For the first time, he carried coal for the school. He went over mountains and ridges. There were 50 catties of coal in the basket, and only 20 catties were left when he arrived at the school. Later, Tong Zeng finally entered high school.

After graduating from high school, 19-year-old Tong Zeng went to the countryside to work in agriculture and opened up wasteland to grow tea, like many of his peers in China at the time, but he has not forgotten to read and study. One day, the cadres of the township government confiscated the ancient Chinese book "Three Hundred Tang Poems" placed beside the pillow on Tong Zeng's bed. Because the book was relatively old and yellow, they mistakenly regarded it as an ancient "pornographic book". Tong Zeng became anxious and chased down the mountain, from the top of the mountain to the bottom of it along the path, explaining that it was not a "pornographic book" but an ancient Chinese poetry book. When the township cadre was having lunch in the village, Tong Zeng took the opportunity, grabbed the book in his hand, and ran...

At the age of 21, Tong Zeng taught temporarily in local rural elementary schools and middle schools, teaching Chinese, history, geography, and other courses.

At the age of 22, he was admitted to Sichuan University in China, and studied economics there. In 1982, he was assigned to teach at the Beijing Industry Management Institute. In 1985, he signed up for the international law professional examination for overseas graduate students funded by a Hong Kong foundation, but was not admitted. In 1986, he was admitted to Peking University for a master's degree in law.

Since 1987, Tong Zeng has published plenty of articles in some Chinese newspapers. He once proposed the " the theory of the new period", and put forward four major civilizations: "spiritual civilization", "material civilization", "environmental civilization" and "institutional civilization". Among them, he mentioned environmental protection to civilization construction for the first time. . Tong Zeng wrote "Where is the World Going" with his peers in 1989, in which he specifically discussed the development trends of poverty and hunger, military competitions, population crisis, lack of resources, and environmental degradation.

Activism

The origin of China Federation of Demanding Compensation from Japan

After the end of World War II, Germany was divided into two countries. Until 1990, East Germany and West Germany achieved unification. They successfully signed the “Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany”with the four victorious nations of Britain, France, the United States, and the Soviet Union. The treaty ensured the unity and sovereignty of Germany, but there is no war compensation in this document. On April 17, 1990, China’s "Newspaper Digest" published a 300-word translated essay, "Europe revisited war reparations". This did not attract the attention of the international community. However, it attracted the attention of a China teacher at that time. This teacher was Tong Zeng, who was 34 years old. Tong Zeng wrote an essay--"The Enlightenment of Europe Revisiting War Reparations for China", which was later revised to "China Demands Japan's Compensation for War Victims without Delay", which was sent to China's National People's Congress in March 1991. Media from Hong Kong and Japan reported on it. For the first time, Tong Zeng distinguished "war compensation" from "civil compensation", and he was the first person to propose that "Chinese civilian victims have the right to claim compensation from the Japanese government and enterprises", raising the issue of protecting the human rights of war victims to a theoretical level. It laid the legal foundation for the Chinese people's demanding compensation from Japan. At the same time, a large number of volunteers gathered around Tong Zeng to start the movement of demanding compensation from Japan. At the end of 1992, according to the AP, the ChicagoTribune and other reports, Tong Zeng had been supported by 300000 signatures.Tong Zeng was credited to be the first Chinese citizen to ask for compensation from Japan for its war crimes during World War II.

The awakening of the victims of World War II

On August 7, 1991, Tong Zeng and 108 Chinese citizens submitted letters to Japanese Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu who was visiting China, demanding that Japan apologize and compensate the Chinese for the losses caused by the invasion of China in World War II. This is a post-war period. For the first time, the Chinese people asked the Japanese government to apologize and compensate for the war crimes of World War II. On January 8, 1992, South Korean comfort women demonstrated for the first time at the entrance of the Japanese Embassy in South Korea and filed a claim for compensation. Subsequently, more and more people demanded Japanese war compensation.

Tong Zeng initiated and promoted a non-governmental compensation campaign against Japan. After being disseminated by the media, From 1991 to 1994, Tong Zeng received nearly 10,000 letters from victims of World War II from all over China.

File:Tong Zeng received "Seeking Help" letters from second world war victims from Mainland of China, Hong Kong, Taiwan,Korea, Malaysia and the U.S. etc.jpg

Tong Zeng received "Seeking Help" letters from second world war victims from Mainland of China, Hong Kong, Taiwan,Korea, Malaysia and the U.S. etc.

The reporter of China South Reviews magazine described this phenomenon, "if the group psychological activities of a society in a certain period can also be counted, then from 1992 to 1994, Tong Zeng may be the person who made the most Chinese people think day and night." Many victims of World War II came to Beijing from all over China to seek help from Tong Zeng, Tong Zeng called on the victims of World War II to write to the Japanese Embassy in China for an apology and compensation. In October 1992, the Emperor of Japan visited China for the first time. Tong publicly expressed his request for the Emperor of Japan to apologize for the invasion of China during World War II and compensate the Chinese victims. During the Emperor of Japan's visit to China, Tong was sent away to Chongqing by his company for a "business trip." In March 1994, Tong asked the visiting Japanese Prime Minister Hosokawa to apologize and pay compensation to the Chinese victims of World War II. He also called on the victims of World War II to protest in front of the Japanese Embassy in Beijing. The Chinese government stopped Tong and he was detained for three days.

In 1995, Tong Zeng organized a news conference for comfort women and World War II victims in a hotel in Beijing, which was stopped by Chinese police Tong Zeng led the Chinese victim to Japan to file a lawsuit. As a result, his passport was confiscated.The Reformatorisch Dagblad of Dutch protestant newspaper also published AP news. In 1995, the Fourth World Women Conference was held in Huairou, Beijing. Tong was an NGO representative approved by the United Nations and participated in the "Comfort Women Forum". He participated in many preparatory meetings for it in Beijing. Tampa Bay times also reported that police warned Tong Zeng not to hold a press conference or cause any trouble until the end of the women's conference to be held on September 9 under the auspices of the United Nations. However, a few days before the meeting, Tong was sent to remote areas out of China. Subsequently, The Dagens Nyheter of Sweden reported on Tong Zeng's situation. The AP reported how Tong Zeng persisted in his beliefs and pursuits: Official China Retreats in Tone on War Against Japan ``Almost every family was affected by the war, so the government fears our work will influence all society,″ said Tong Zeng, a researcher on the aging who started the compensation campaign nearly six years ago. ``They also fear it will affect relations with Japan, especially economic relations.″  Having been previously pressured to curb his efforts, Tong knew that the 50th anniversary of the war’s end would not dramatically alter China’s official attitude. But he remains committed to getting the Japanese government to pay for the sufferings it caused. ``The government abandoned″ retribution, Tong said. ``But we as a people shouldn’t. We cannot abandon it.″

In 1992, Tong Zeng called on the Chinese media to find comfort women in China. After that, a Shanxi elementary school teacher in China wrote to Tong for finding comfort women. The incident of Chinese comfort women was only then made public. Zhang Shuangbing followed Tong to defend the rights of comfort women to this day. In 1992, three Korean comfort women went to Beijing to find Tong.

File:In 1992, three Korean Comfort women visited Tong Zeng in Beijing.jpg

In 1992, three Korean Comfort women visited Tong Zeng in Beijing

The uterus of the three elderly women had all been removed by the Japanese army. They also showed Tong Zeng the scars left by them. Tong sent them to the South Korean Embassy in China. One of the Korean comfort women named Hong Aizhen, who also wrote a letter of thanks to Tong.

30 years of achievements

On August 15, 1995, the Japanese Prime Minister apologized for invading Asian countries during World War II. Tong Zeng made a positive evaluation of this. The New York Times also made an objective evaluation of Japan's apology. Tong Zeng has been persisting in asking the Japanese Prime Minister to apologize for aggression against other countries during World War II, since he launched a campaign to demand Japan's apology and compensation in 1990. Later on, South Korean civilian groups and Japanese anti-war groups also strongly demanded the Japanese government to apologize. Further, a large number of Japanese veterans came to China and apologized in a variety of places there, and some even found the descendants of Chinese victims to apologize for. CNN, AP, and other media reported on the incident.

From 1994 to 2007, Tong and the Chinese war victims initiated and urged 25 lawsuits filed in Japanese courts with the help of over 300 Japanese lawyers. Japanese courts also affirmed the Nanjing Massacre, Pingdingshan Massacre, Comfort Women, Facts of war crimes such as war labor, human body testing, and germ warfare. After 2007, Tong Zeng and his team urged five Japanese companies to apologize or compensate victims in China and reached a settlement. Japanese companies compensated the Chinese victims with about 300 million yuan. In addition, China's Zhongwei Company sued Mitsui Merchants in the Shanghai Maritime Court of China. After 20 years of litigation, it finally received 240 million yuan in compensation from Mitsui Merchants in 2014. According to Tong, the ultimate goal of his 30 years’ continuous efforts in this cause is to promote China-Japan friendship and world peace.