In 1896, he took over the Hanyang ironworks and related mines, along with control of the newly created imperial railway administration.

Sheng Xuanhuai was a founder and the first president of the Red Cross Society of China, and is widely considered one of the key officials behind the then fledgling movement alongside Shen Dunhe.[who?

][citation needed] After the Boxer Uprising, in 1900 when Eight Nation Alliance entered Peking, Sheng and Ronglu initiated the Mutual Protection of Southeast China, resisting Empress Dowager Cixi's Imperial Decree of declaration of war against foreign powers.

Li Hongzhang, Yuan Shikai and other viceroys openly rejected Dowager's call for staging military actions against the foreign powers.

[4] Sheng's private residence in Beijing while he was serving as the postal minister, has since been turned into a hotel for the public.