Born into a Hakka Chinese family in Fangcheng, Guangxi, he joined the Tongmenghui in 1908 and began serving in the Guangdong Army in 1920, rising from battalion to brigade commander.

Becoming chairman of the government of Guangdong in 1931, he turned against Chiang Kai-shek in the south after the arrest and release of Hu Hanmin and allied with New Guangxi Clique army commanders; another civil war might have broken out as a result if there had been no September 18 Incident in Shenyang, which reminded all sides of the necessity to unite.

During Chiang Kai-shek's fifth campaign against Jiangxi Soviet, he named Chen as commander-in-chief of the southern front, commanding over 300,000 troops, or 30% of the 1,000,000 total Nationalist force mobilized against the communist base.

Furthermore, Chen made a secret deal with the communists that would ensure the Chinese Red Army would pass through his territory as fast as possible, while his forces would not stop them in the process.

This proved to be counterproductive to his efforts, as many of his men saw this as a weakening in the unification against the imminent Imperial Japanese onslaught and defected to the central government, including future ace-fighter pilot in the Second Sino-Japanese War, Cen Zeliu.

[1] After months of political maneuvering, bribery, defections and negotiations, the Liangguang incident was resolved peacefully with Chen resigning in July and fleeing to Hong Kong.