Du Yuesheng

Independent activity 1888–1951 ○ Natural causes

Shanghai underworld boss and financier who mobilised the Green Gang for the April 12 Incident

Born near Shanghai and orphaned young, he joined the Green Gang at sixteen and rose as the gambling and opium enforcer of Huang Jinrong, senior Chinese detective of the French Concession police, becoming with Huang and Zhang Xiaolin one of the "Three Tycoons of Shanghai". In April 1927 he conspired with Chiang Kai-shek to form a paramilitary group posing as a labour body; on the night of the 11th the labour leader Wang Shouhua was killed at his residence, and his men then set upon workers and leftists, opening the way to the April 12 Incident. Rewarded with the rank of major general and advisory posts, he founded a bank in 1928 and became a financial magnate. He refused to collaborate with Japan and in 1949 moved to Hong Kong, where he died.

Also known as: Du Yong · Tu Yueh-sheng