Chang Li-sheng (24 May 1900-), Kuomintang leader and government official, was director of the party's organization department in 1936-37 and minister of the interior from 1944 until May 1948; in Taiwan, he served as vice president of the Executive Yuan and then as ambassador to Japan.

Lot'ing hsien in Chihli (later Hopei) province was the birthplace of Chang Li-sheng. The area is south of the Great Wall and borders on the Gulf of Chihli. Although the traditional occupation of the family was farming, Chang's father, Chang Sheng-wu, often joined groups of traders traveling to Manchuria. During these trips the elder Chang witnessed atrocities perpetrated by the Japanese in the Northeastern provinces and was once imprisoned by them for anti-Japanese acts. The boy, after hearing his father's reports of these trips, developed deep feelings of animosity toward the Japanese.

Although the family was in straitened circumstances, they managed to send Chang Lisheng to school at the age of eight sui and, later, to the higher primary school operated by Lot'ing hsien. His father died at that time, but with financial aid from friends and relatives, Chang was able to continue his studies. In 1917 he enrolled in the Nankai School at Tientsin, operated by Chang Po-ling (q.v.) . Wu Chih-hui (q.v.), the prominent classical scholar and revolutionary, was teaching Chinese at the nearby Tangshan School ofRailways and Mines. Chang Li-sheng, who held Wu in high esteem, secured an introduction to Wu Chih-hui and visited him at every opportunity. Under Wu's influence, Chang resolved to go abroad to study in Europe. He therefore left Nankai to enter the preparatory department of the law school of Ch'ao-yang College at Peking, studying European history and French.

In the summer of 1920, with funds provided by friends and relatives, Chang Li-sheng left for France. After preparatory courses, he entered the University of Paris in 1922 to study sociology and economics. In Paris he joined the Kuomintang, and in 1924 he was elected to the executive committee of the French branch of the party, then the largest Kuomintang organization in Europe. That was the period of the first political alliance between the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communists; one of Chang's fellow committee members was Chou En-lai, and another associate was Li Fu-ch'un. Even at that time, Chang came into constant conflict with the two young Communists.

Chang Li-sheng returned to China in 1925 and took a teaching job at Chungshan College in Shanghai. Toward the end of 1926, when the Northern Expedition reached Wuhan, Chang went there and became a secretary in the political department of the Tenth Army. Later in 1927, when Shao Yuan-ch'ung became mayor of Hangchow, Chang went there to serve as chief secretary of the municipal government. The purge of the Communists was then being carried out, and because of Chang's record in opposing the Communists in France, he was made a member of the guidance committee of the Nanking municipal headquarters of the Kuomintang. He attended the Third National Congress of the Kuomintang in March 1929 as a delegate and made a fine impression on Ch'en Kuo-fu, then head of the organization department in the central party headquarters. Ch'en Kuo-fu appointed Chang a secretary in the organization department. In 1931, at the Fourth National Congress the Kuomintang, he was elected an alternate member of the Central Executive Committee. In October 1932 he was appointed a member of the Hopei provincial council and was placed in charge of party affairs in north China. He was then only 32 sui. At the Fifth National Congress in November 1935 he became a full member of the Central Executive Committee, and in February 1936 he succeeded Ch'en Li-fu (q.v.) as chief of the organization department, the most important branch of the Central Executive Committee.

After the Sino-Japanese war began, Ch'en Ch'eng was appointed director of the political department of the military council in January 1938. Chang Li-sheng was relieved of his duties as head of the organization department to become secretary general of the political department. Later, he became a deputy director. Chang held that post until September 1940, when he relinquished it at the same time that Ch'en Ch'eng left the post of director. Chang then was appointed secretary general of the Supreme National Defense Council's newly created party and government work examination committee for the promotion of administrative efficiency. He held that post for two years.

In December 1942 Chang was appointed secretary general of the Executive Yuan on the recommendation of H. H. K'ung, then vice president of the yuan. That appointment marked the beginning of Chang's direct participation in government administration. He was ex officio secretary general of the National General Mobilization Council. He remained in the Executive Yuan for three years and won a good reputation for his sense of responsibility and his capacity to coordinate the various governmental departments at Chungking. When T. V. Soong became president of the Executive Yuan in December 1944, Chang was appointed minister of the interior. He continued to hold his position as secretary general for a few months until Chiang Monlin was appointed his successor. Chang Ch'un replaced T. V. Soong as president of the Executive Yuan in March 1947. There were several ministerial changes, but Chang Li-sheng remained as minister of the interior until the promulgation of the new constitution in May 1948. Then he became vice president of the Executive Yuan.

In his four years as minister of the interior, Chang Li-sheng, in addition to his normal duties, supervised the holding of the elections to the National Assembly and to the Control Yuan and the popular elections. He also undertook the preparation of census laws and regulations and the planning ofa nation-wide census. These laws and regulations were published in 1946, and a census bureau was established in March 1947. Unfortunately, because of the developing civil war in China, the planned census could not be carried out. These laws, however, did provide the basis for the census taken in Taiwan in September 1956.

In spite of the non-cooperation of the Chinese Communists, the various elections were held, and the National Assembly met on schedule to adopt the new constitution and to enforce constitutional government. Chang Li-sheng became vice president of the Executive Yuan. This cabinet fell in November 1948, however, and in the new cabinet of Sun Fo, Chang Li-sheng became minister without portfolio. When the Communist military forces swept south over the mainland, he moved to Taiwan.

In August 1949, Ch'en Ch'eng, then governor of Taiwan, appointed Chang Li-sheng to serve as chairman of the Taiwan Provincial Autonomy Research Institute so that he could use his experience in the formulation of plans and regulations for the enforcement of local autonomy in Taiwan province. When Ch'en Ch'eng was appointed president of the Executive Yuan in March 1950, Chang Li-sheng was again made vice president of the yuan. He remained in that post for four years until June 1954, when Ch'en Ch'eng relinquished the premiership on his election as vice president of the republic. From August 1954 through 1958 Chang served as secretary general of the Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang. In 1959 he was appointed Chinese ambassador to Japan and held that post for four years. He returned to Taiwan in September 1963, when official relations between Taipei and Tokyo were seriously strained, and retired from official life.