This was not a very difficult one, as relatively recent there have been publications about this truck. Kit Foster, jury member, writes: “Well, that would be the Minsheng, or maybe Chung Shan, depending on whether you favour the ruler or the people. Its "father" was Daniel F. Myers, born in 1889 in Knox County, Indiana. Full details are in Automotive History Review No. 54.” An easy one for Kit as he helped the authors of this article about the brainchilds of Daniel F. Myers in the Automotive History Review by SAH.
Mr. Myers was a former employee of Relay Trucks in the US. He went to Manchuria in 1928 on request of the local warlord and developed a truck factory in a former weapon plant. In 1931 two prototypes were ready, clearly based on the Relay models, but sturdier, and the factory started planning serial production. But, the Japanese occupied Manchuria and one of the first things they did was bombing the truck factory and murdering part of the staff. That was the end of the first Chinese truck project. Myers however stayed in China and designed a small three-wheeler cyclecar, which never came into production.
Surprisingly Kit wrote the only right answer. So there is no winner. One question remains I still hope will give positive answers: in the US there must be more information about this truck; letters, photos which Myers had sent to American truck and parts manufacturers. Or other sources. Anyone who has anything, please contact us.
(Special thanks to Erik van Ingen Schenau, who is one of the participants in the 2015 4C Rally Beijing-Shanghai )