after the second chinese civil war ended, zheng moved to taiwan. in january 1950, zheng, and leading kuomintang figures huang shao-ku, chen lifu, chiang ching-kuo, and ku cheng-kang, among others, met at sun moon lake to discuss party reform. zheng left the legislature in march 1952, and took office as the minister of the overseas chinese affairs commission the next month. after leaving that post in 1958, zheng returned to public service as minister of justice from 1960 to 1967. he was then named deputy secretary-general of the presidential office, before succeeding zhang qun as secretary-general in 1972. zheng was replaced by chiang yen-si as secretary-general, and became an adviser to chiang ching-kuo, who had become president. in 1979, chang chi-yun invited zheng to join the faculty of chinese culture university.