He was the son of Zeng Shan, a communist revolutionary and later Minister of the Interior, and Deng Liujin (邓六金), a notable female participant of the Long March.

With the opening of the reform era, Zeng joined the State Development and Reform Commission in 1979 and then held a series of management positions in the state petroleum sector, including a series of foreign liaison positions with the China National Offshore Oil Corporation.

In 1984, Zeng began working for the Shanghai municipal government, where he became a key ally of then-Party Committee Secretary Jiang Zemin.

When Jiang was elevated to General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party in national leadership re-shuffle following the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, he brought Zeng Qinghong along as his adviser.

[3] However, Jiang made it clear that a 'pre-condition' for his stepping down at the 16th Party Congress was for Zeng to become a member of the elite Politburo Standing Committee.

During his term in the PSC, although he was formally ranked fifth, Zeng was seen as a 'power broker' in the party, believed to possess power that was second only to General secretary Hu Jintao.

[4] Initially seen as a rival to general secretary Hu Jintao, Zeng was obliged to show a willingness to work towards consensus with the old guard following Jiang's semi-retirement.

During the SARS outbreak, Hu and Premier Wen Jiabao took very strong and assertive action while Zeng and other Jiang loyalists receded to the background.

Zeng also worked with Hu to manage the potential effects on China of the ouster of authoritarian regimes in Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, and Ukraine.

[4] Additionally, Zeng also played a leading role in coordinating the funeral service for Politburo Standing Committee member Huang Ju, who died of cancer in 2007.

Before his retirement, however, Zeng used his political strength to secure the elevation of Xi Jinping and Zhou Yongkang into the Politburo Standing Committee.

[13] In 2007, an exposé published by finance magazine Caijing alleged that Zeng Wei had, through a series of complex corporate vehicles, completed the purchase of power generation giant Shandong Luneng at 70 billion yuan (~$10 billion) below market value, and that Zeng Wei was, for all intents and purposes, the real owner of the company despite his name not appearing in corporate documents.