Cen Zeliu

Cen Zeliu (Chinese: 岑泽鎏; pinyin: Cén Zéliú; Wade–Giles: Ts'en Chih-liu/Shen Tse-Liu; 1912–1941), also Shum Tsak-lau (Cantonese), was born in Enping, Guangdong, China. He trained at the Guangdong provincial aviation academy as a fighter pilot, graduating in 1934, and was attached to the provincial warlord air force of General Chen Jitang. With the imminence of war between China and the Empire of Japan brewing ever since the Manchurian Incident of 1931, Cen Zeliu and his compatriots were indignant about taking the fight back to the Imperial Japanese invasion and occupation.

In May 1936, General Chen Jitang conspired to join the warlord regiment of the New Guangxi Clique in an affront against the hope of joining with the central government of China under Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek for a unified national front against the ambitions and aggressions of the Imperial Japanese invasion; this set the stage for Cen Zeliu and members of the Guangdong Air Force under General Huang Guangrui, the air force's Commander-in-Chief, to embark on the "Northern Flight" (北飛) defection to the centralized Nationalist Air Force of China in the midst of the Guangzhou-Guangxi Incident in June–July 1936.