Guangdong was one of the last parts of China liberated from the Guomindang. It was not occupied by the People's Liberation Army until the end of 1949. Several weeks earlier, in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, Chairman Mao had already declared the establishment of the People's Republic of China. In the “old revolutionary bases,” where the new government had ruled for a long time, and in the “early liberated areas,” such as northeastern China, tasks such as establishing the new government in the cities and the country-side, recruiting and training a reliable group of cadres, propagandizing the peasants and organizing them to overthrow the landlords and local bullies, and carrying out land reform, were already well under way; in Guangdong they had not yet been undertaken (Vogel 1971, p. 42).

In Dongguan county, the East River Guerrillas had occupied Dongguan and Shilong prior to the arrival of the People's Liberation Army, which took over from them. District governments were established in these towns, which were important to Zengbu because of their proximity, but for a period of two years between Liberation and the end of 1951, little of structural significance happened in Zengbu itself. The old landlord-gentry officials, although restless and uneasy, remained in power. Rice-purchasing contingents from the new government came out to Zengbu in 1950 to buy rice for the cities. The new government organized song and dance propaganda troupes which came to Zengbu to explain the Communist party and its programs to the peasants, but there were no other changes of consequence.