Zhou Enlai (5 March 1898 – 8 January 1976) was Premier of the People's Republic of China from 1 October 1949 to 8 January 1976, preceding Hua Guofeng. He was Mao Zedong's right-hand man, and he was influential in Mao's rise to power, the consolidation of communist rule, and the development of the Chinese economy.
Biography[]
Zhou Enlai was born in Huai'an, Jiangsu, Qing China in 1898 into a wealthy Mandarin family, and he studied in Japan and France, where he joined the Communist Party of China in 1922. After further study in Germany from 1923 to 1924, he returned to Guangzhou, where he was appointed commander of the political department of the Whampoa Military Academy, which was led by Chiang Kai-shek. He was dismissed by Chiang in 1926, whereupon he became head of the CPC's military department, in which capacity he took part in the first stage of the Northern Expedition, until the Kuomintang's crackdown on the communists in 1927. He went to Moscow as the party's representative to Comintern, but returned and joined the Jianxi Soviet in 1931. Although initially not an ally of Mao Zedong, he became his most important aide after Mao's assumption of the CPC leadership during the Long March in January 1935. In 1936, he led negotiations with Zhang Xueliang about cooperation with the National Republican Army, and, although not directly involved, came to Chiang's help during the Xi'an incident. During the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War, he emerged as one of the principal political as well as military leaders, and became a chief negotiator with the Nationalists. In the new People's Republic of China, he served as Premier of the Government Administration Council and, from 1954, of the State Council. In these positions, he was responsible for the day-to-day execution of Mao's policies, which he accomplished with great skill. He was Foreign Minister until 1958, though he continued to be a major influence in China's foreign policy until his death. Thus, he brought the Korean War to an end in 1953 and succeeded in achieving membership of the UN in 1971, at the height of the Cultural Revolution. He survived the latter, and even used it to get rid of his closest rival, Lin Biao. Despite the fact that, as Mao's deputy, he bore substantial responsibility for the excesses of Mao's rule, notably the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, he promoted a generation of more moderate leaders to high office, among them Deng Xiaoping. His death resulted in large protest demonstrations at Tiananmen Square.
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