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. Tong Zeng wrote a paper in 1990, which triggered a civil movement to safeguard the dignity and rights of victims of World War II.^[1][2][3] Tong Zeng was suppressed by the Chinese government in the early stages, ^[4] but 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^[5][6] and was nominated as a Nobel Peace Prize candidate for the first time in 2015.^[7]

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.

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 1986, he was admitted to Peking University for a master's degree in law.^[8]

Tong worked with others to write "Where is the World going?" in 1989, in which he specifically discussed the development trends of poverty and hunger, military competition, population crisis, lack of resources, and environmental degradation.^[9]

Activism

The origin of China Federation of Demanding Compensation from Japan

Tong Zeng was credited to be the first Chinese citizen to ask for compensation from Japan for its war crimes during Word War II.^[8] In 1990, 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"^[10], which was sent to China’s National People’s Congress in March 1991. Media from Hong Kong and Japan reported on it.^[11] For the first time, Tong 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 to start the movement of demanding compensation from Japan.^{[citation needed]}

The awakening of the victims of World War II

From 1991 to 1994, Tong Zeng received nearly 10,000 letters from victims of World War II from all over China.^[12] Tong 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.^[13][14] 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."^[15] 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.^[16] 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. However, a few days before the meeting, Tong was sent to remote areas out of China.^[17][18]

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.^[19] In 1992, three Korean comfort women went to Beijing to find Tong. 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.^[20]

30 years of achievements

On August 15th, 1995, the Japanese Prime Minister apologized for invading Asian countries during World War II.^[21] 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.^{[citation needed]}

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.^[22] 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.^[23][24] 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.^[25][26] According to Tong, the ultimate goal of his 30 years’ continuous efforts in this cause is to promote China-Japan friendship and world peace.^[27]