His quick reaction allowed the Communist leadership in Shanghai to evacuate, and he was credited with saving the lives of top leaders including Zhou Enlai, later the Premier of China.

[4] In 1925, Qian and his wife secretly joined the Chinese Communist Party, and used filmmaking and their medical practice as covers for their underground activities.

Xu made him his "confidential secretary" and the chief coordinator of the central intelligence headquarters in Nanjing,[5] in charge of recruiting more special agents.

[7] This created opportunities for Qian's fellow Communist agents, most notably Hu Di and Li Kenong, to join the KMT secret service as moles.

[7] On 24 April 1931, Gu Shunzhang, Zhou Enlai's security chief and head of the Communist Party's dreaded Red Brigade, was arrested in Wuhan while on a mission to assassinate Chiang Kai-shek.

[13] In late March or early April 1935, Qian was killed during the Red Army's crossing of the Wu River in Jinsha County, Guizhou.

[1][14] Zhou Enlai later called Qian Zhuangfei, Li Kenong and Hu Di, "the three most distinguished intelligence workers of the Party",[6] and said that he and other Communist leaders owed their lives to them.

[1] Li, the sole survivor of the three who lived to see the founding of the People's Republic of China, was awarded the military rank of general (shang jiang) in 1955, despite his lack of combat experience.