No, not necessarily. When there's little or no possibility of confusion, a semicolon need not be used to punctuate a series of only two items that consist of the name of each subject followed by just one modifying phrase or description set off by a comma, as in this case of the sentence that you presented:
"As well as Deng Tuo, the column's co-authors included Wu Han, Vice-Mayor of Beijing Municipality and a leading historian of the Ming Dynasty, and Liao Mosha, Director of the United Front Work Department in the Municipal Party Committee."
In such sentences, it generally can still be clearly discerned which subject is modified by what phrase in the serial enumeration, so a comma after the first subject and its modifying phrase followed by "and" will typically suffice to mark a soft but clear demarcation between them and the second subject and its modifying phrase. In fact, to use a semicolon instead of a comma to mark that demarcation in a serial enumeration of only two subjects and their modifying phrases can give the impression that the writer has a tendency to overpunctuate.
So as a rule for such serial constructions, use a semicolon only when three or more subjects are serially enumerated and when each subject is modified by one or more phrases and modifiers set off by commas, as in the following example:
"As well as Deng Tuo, the column's co-authors included Wu Han, Vice-Mayor of Beijing Municipality and a leading historian of the Ming Dynasty; Liao Mosha, Director of the United Front Work Department in the Municipal Party Committee; and Shao Feng, Chairman of the Historical Committee."
The use of semicolons as soft demarcators will prevent the serial items and their modifiers from becoming a messy, incomprehensible heap of words and phrases.
As to your mention of the publication of Vermilion Gate as a possible reason why the semicolon was omitted in the sentence that you presented, I’m sorry but I didn’t get the connection. You may want to explain that connection for the benefit of the Forum’s readers.
