Zhou Enlai (Simplified Chinese: 周恩来; Traditional Chinese: 周恩來; pinyin: Zhōu Ēnlái; Wade-Giles: Chou En-lai) (March 5, 1898 – January 8, 1976), a prominent Communist Party of China leader, was Premier of the People's Republic of China from 1949 until his death. The Premier ( Chinese: 总理 pinyin: zŏnglĭ), sometimes referred to as the Prime Minister, is the Chairman of the State Council of the Peoples Republic of China and head of Central Peoples Government. ... October 1 is the 274th day of the year (275th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1949 (MCMXLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1949 calendar). ... January 8 is the 8th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1976 (MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday. ... Hua Guofeng (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: Huà GuófÄ“ng; Wade-Giles: Hua Kuo-feng) (born February 16, 1921) was Mao Zedongs designated successor as the paramount leader of the Communist Party of China and the Peoples Republic of China. ... The Foreign Minister of the Peoples Republic of China is the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Peoples Republic of China and one of the countrys most important cabinet posts. ... 1949 (MCMXLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1949 calendar). ... 1958 (MCMLVIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Statue of Chen Yi Chen Yi (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: Chén Yì; August 26, 1901 - June 6, 1972) was a Chinese communist military commander and politician. ... March 5 is the 64th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (65th in leap years). ... 1898 (MDCCCXCVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Huaian (淮安) is a city in northern Jiangsu, China. ... Jiangsu (Simplified Chinese: 江苏; Traditional Chinese: 江蘇; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Chiang-su; Postal System Pinyin: Kiangsu) is a province of the Peoples Republic of China, located along the east coast of the country. ... January 8 is the 8th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1976 (MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday. ... The Communist Party of China (CPC) (official name, though almost universally known in English as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)) (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: Zhōngguó GòngchÇŽndÇŽng) is the ruling political party of the Peoples Republic of China, a position guaranteed by the countrys... Deng Yingchao (邓颖超) (February 4, 1904 - July 11, 1992), was the Chairwoman of the Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Conference from 1983 to 1988 and a member of the Communist Party of China. ... Simplified Chinese characters (Simplified Chinese: 简体字; Traditional Chinese: 簡體字; pinyin: jiÇŽntǐzì; also Simplified Chinese: 简化字; Traditional Chinese: 簡化字; pinyin: jiÇŽnhuàzì) are one of two standard character sets of printed contemporary Chinese written language. ... Traditional Chinese characters are one of two standard sets of printed Chinese characters. ... Pinyin is a system of romanization (phonemic notation and transcription to Roman script) for Standard Mandarin, where pin means spell and yin means sound. The most common variant of pinyin in use is called Hanyu Pinyin (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ), also known as scheme of the Chinese phonetic alphabet... Wade-Giles, sometimes abbreviated Wade, is a Romanization (phonetic notation and transliteration) system for the Chinese language based on Mandarin. ... March 5 is the 64th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (65th in leap years). ... 1898 (MDCCCXCVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... January 8 is the 8th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1976 (MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday. ... The Communist Party of China (CPC) (official name, though almost universally known in English as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)) (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: Zhōngguó GòngchÇŽndÇŽng) is the ruling political party of the Peoples Republic of China, a position guaranteed by the countrys... The Premier ( Chinese: 总理 pinyin: zŏnglĭ), sometimes referred to as the Prime Minister, is the Chairman of the State Council of the Peoples Republic of China and head of Central Peoples Government. ...

Early years and education

Zhou Enlai was born in Huai An, Jiangsu Province. His family, although of the educated scholar class, was not well off. His grandfather, a minor civil servant of the Emperor, was poorly paid. His father repeatedly failed the Imperial examinations, and throughout his life would be employed in low-paying minor clerkships. Huaian (Chinese: 淮安; Hanyu Pinyin: ), known as Huaiyin (Chinese: 淮阴; Hanyu Pinyin: ) before 2001, is a prefecture-level city in northern Jiangsu province, Peoples Republic of China. ... Jiangsu (Simplified Chinese: 江苏; Traditional Chinese: 江蘇; pinyin: Jiāngsū; Wade-Giles: Chiang-su; Postal System Pinyin: Kiangsu) is a province of the Peoples Republic of China, located along the east coast of the country. ... The imperial examinations (Chinese: 科舉; Pinyin: ) in dynastic China determined positions in the civil service based on merit and education, which promoted upward mobility among the population for centuries. ...

Zhou Enlai was the eldest son and eldest grandson of the Zhou family. When Enlai was still less than one year old, he was adopted by his father's youngest brother who was dying of tuberculosis. This adoption took place so that the younger brother would not die childless, a serious scandal to a traditional Confucian family of high status. Tuberculosis (abbreviated as TB for Tubercle Bacillus) is a common and deadly infectious disease caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which most commonly affects the lungs (pulmonary TB) but can also affect the central nervous system, lymphatic system, circulatory system, genitourinary system, bones and joints. ...

Lady Chen, his adoptive mother, began to teach him the Chinese ideograms as soon as he could toddle. By the time he was four years old he could read and write several hundred words.

In 1907 Enlai’s birth mother died of TB, and in the summer of 1908 Lady Chen also died. Enlai was an orphan at the age of ten, so it was arranged that Enlai would leave Huai An and go to the city of Shenyang in Manchuria to live with his Uncle Yikeng. At the age of twelve Enlai was enrolled in the Tung Guan model school that taught “new learning,” i.e. mathematics and natural science, as well as Chinese history, geography and literature. The students were also exposed to translations of western books, where Enlai learned about freedom, democracy and the American and French revolutions. 1907 (MCMVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Wednesday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Tuberculosis (abbreviated as TB for Tubercle Bacillus) is a common and deadly infectious disease caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which most commonly affects the lungs (pulmonary TB) but can also affect the central nervous system, lymphatic system, circulatory system, genitourinary system, bones and joints. ... Shenyang (Simplified Chinese: , Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ShÄ›nyáng, Manchu: Mukden) is the capital city of Liaoning province in Northeast China. ... Manchuria (Manchu: Manju; Traditional Chinese: 滿洲; Simplified Chinese: 满洲; pinyin: MÇŽnzhōu, Russian: ) is a vast territorial region in northeast Asia. ...

In 1913, at the age of fifteen, Enlai graduated from Tung Guan and in September of that year he was enrolled in the Nankai school, located in Tianjin. For the next four years he was a diligent student of this prestigious school. Throughout the period of his schooling China was in great turmoil. In 1911 the Xinhai Revolution of Sun Yat-sen overthrew the Qing dynasty and established the Republic of China. The outbreak of the Great War in Europe relieved the pressure from European intruders, but presented an opportunity for Japan to push its own dominance. Enlai could see that China was being ruined by foreign intervention. He shared in the wrath, the protest, and the indignation at the plight of China. 1913 (MCMXIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday. ... Nankai refers to the series of schools founded in China by the famous patriotic-educationists Zhang Boling(张伯苓) (1876-1951) and Yan Fansun(严范孙) (1860-1920). ...   (Chinese: ; pinyin: TiānjÄ«n; Postal map spelling: Tientsin) is one of the four municipalities of the Peoples Republic of China. ... 1911 (MCMXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar). ... The former government location at Wuhan after Wuchang Uprising, 1911. ... Sun Yat-sen (Chinese: 孫逸仙) (November 12, 1866–March 12, 1925) was a Chinese revolutionary and political leader who is often referred to as the father of modern China. Sun played an instrumental and leadership role in the eventual overthrow of the Qing Dynasty in 1911. ... The Qing Dynasty (Manchu: daicing gurun; Chinese: 清朝; pinyin: qīng cháo; Wade-Giles: ching chao), sometimes known as the Manchu Dynasty, was founded by the Manchu clan Aisin Gioro, in what is today northeast China expanded into China proper and the surrounding territories of... Motto: Three Principles of the People (三民主義 San-min Chu-i) Anthem: National Anthem of the Republic of China Capital Taipei (de facto)  Nanking (de jure)1  Largest city Taipei Mandarin (GuóyÇ”) Government Semi-presidential system  - President Chen Shui-bian  - Vice President Annette Lu  - Premier Su Tseng-chang Establishment Xinhai... Ypres, 1917, in the vicinity of the Battle of Passchendaele. ...

The next step in Enlai’s education was to attend university in Tokyo. His goal was to become a teacher so that he could have influence on the youth of China. But he found he could not concentrate. He could not study. In Nankai he had written and spoken against Japan’s military and political pressure upon China, and its inexorable slide into anarchy. He challenged his fellow students on what his generation could do to save China. Their answer was to study, to become educated in the sciences and professions. China needed elite, knowledgeable doctors, engineers, and teachers. “But why?” he asked. “If China is to disappear, what is the use of studying?”

In early May 1919, dejected and without completing his education, he left Japan. Enlai arrived in Tianjin on May 9, in time to take part in the momentous May Fourth Movement of 1919. May 9 is the 129th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (130th in leap years). ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ...

Revolutionary activities

Zhou first came to national prominence as an activist during the May Fourth Movement. He had enrolled as a student in the literature department of Nankai University, which enabled him to visit the campus, but he never attended classes. He became one of the organizers of the Tianjin Students Union, whose avowed aim was “to struggle against the warlords and against imperialism, and to save China from extinction." Enlai became the editor of the student union’s newspaper, Tianjin Student. In September, he founded the Awareness Society with twelve men and eight women. Fifteen year old Deng Yingchao, Enlai’s future wife, was one of the founding female members. (They were not married until much later, on August 8, 1925). Zhou was instrumental in the merger between the all male Tianjin Students Union and the all female Women’s Patriotic Association. Nankai University (Simplified Chinese: 南开大学; Traditional Chinese: 南開大學; pinyin: ), located in Tianjin, is one of the leading universities in China. ... Deng Yingchao (邓颖超) (February 4, 1904 - July 11, 1992), was the Chairwoman of the Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Conference from 1983 to 1988 and a member of the Communist Party of China. ... August 8 is the 220th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (221st in leap years), with 145 days remaining. ... 1925 (MCMXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ...

In January 1920, the police raided the printing press and arrested several members of the Awareness Society. Enlai led a group of students to protest the arrests, and was himself arrested along with 28 others. After the trial in July, they were found guilty of a minor offence and released. An attempt was made by the Comintern to induct Zhou into the Communist Party of China, but although he was studying Marxism he remained uncommitted. Instead of being selected to go to Moscow for training, he was chosen to go to France as a student organizer. Deng Yingchao was left in charge of the Awareness Society in his absence. The Comintern (Russian: Коммунистический Интернационал, Kommunisticheskiy Internatsional – Communist International, also known as the Third International) was an international Communist organization founded in March 1919, in the midst of the war communism period (1918-1921), by Vladimir Lenin and the Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik), which intended to fight by all available means, including... The Communist Party of China (CPC) (official name, though almost universally known in English as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)) (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: Zhōngguó GòngchÇŽndÇŽng) is the ruling political party of the Peoples Republic of China, a position guaranteed by the countrys... Marxism refers to the philosophy and social theory based on Karl Marxs work on one hand, and to the political practice based on Marxist theory on the other hand (namely, parts of the First International during Marxs time, communist parties and later states). ... Location Position of Moscow in Europe Government Country District Subdivision Russia Central Federal District Federal City Mayor Yuriy Luzhkov Geographical characteristics Area  - City 1,081 km² Population  - City (2005)    - Density 10,415,400   8537. ...

The European years

On November 7, 1920, Zhou Enlai and 196 other Chinese students sailed from Shanghai for Marseilles, France. At Marseilles they were met by a member of the Sino-French Education Committee and boarded a train to Paris. Almost as soon as he arrived Zhou became embroiled in a wrangle between the students and the education authorities running the “work and study” program. The students were supposed to work in factories part time and attend class part time. Because of corruption and graft in the Education Committee, however, the students were not paid. As a result they simply provided cheap labour for the French factory owners and received very little education in return. Zhou wrote to newspapers back in China denouncing the committee and the corrupt government officials. November 7 is the 311th day of the year (312th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 54 days remaining. ... 1920 (MCMXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday. ... Shanghai (Chinese: ; pinyin:  ; Shanghainese: ), situated on the banks of the Yangtze River Delta in East China, is the largest city of the Peoples Republic of China and the eighth largest in the world. ... Marseilles redirects here. ... City flag City coat of arms Motto: Fluctuat nec mergitur (Latin: Tossed by the waves, she does not sink) Location Coordinates Time Zone CET (GMT +1) Administration Country France Région ÃŽle-de-France Département Paris (75) Subdivisions 20 arrondissements Mayor Bertrand Delanoë  (PS) (since 2001) City Statistics Land...

Zhou traveled to Britain in January; he applied for and was accepted as a student at Edinburgh University. But the university term didn’t start until October so he returned to France, moving in with Liu Tsingyang and Zhang Shenfu, who were setting up a Communist cell. Zhou joined the group and was entrusted with political and organizational work. There is some controversy over the date Zhou joined the Communist Party of China. For secrecy reasons members did not carry membership cards. Zhou himself wrote "autumn, 1922" at a verification carried out at the Party's Seventh Congress in 1945. The University of Edinburgh was founded in 1583 as a renowned centre for teaching in Edinburgh, Scotland. ...

There were 2,000 Chinese students in France, some 200 each in Belgium and England and between 300 and 400 in Germany. For the next four years Zhou was the chief recruiter, organizer and coordinator of activities of the Socialist Youth League. He traveled constantly between Belgium, Germany and France, safely conveying party members through Berlin to entrain for Moscow, to be taught the art of revolution. The Communist Youth League of China (中国共产主义青年团; abbr. ... Berlin is the capital city and one of the sixteen states of the Federal Republic of Germany. ...

At first the CCP, established in July 1921 by Chen Duxiu, rejected the suggestion of the Comintern that they establish a “united front” with Sun Yat-sen’s new Kuomintang, (Nationalist Party), but in 1923 the CCP changed its policy. Zhou was now charged with the task of coordinating cooperation between the two vastly different political movements in Europe. He apparently did such a good job he was ordered back to China to take charge of the united front work in the Kuomintang stronghold in Guangzhou. He arrived in Hong Kong in July 1924. Chen Duxiu (October 8, 1879 – May 27, 1942) played many different roles in Chinese history. ... The Chinese Nationalist Party (Traditional Chinese: ; Simplified Chinese: ; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Tongyong Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Chung-kuo Kuo-min-tang), commonly known as the Kuomintang (KMT), is a centre-right political party in the Republic of China on Taiwan, and is currently the largest political party in terms of sitting Legislative...

The First United Front

In January, 1924, Sun Yat-sen had officially proclaimed an alliance between the Kuomintang and the Communists, and a plan for a military expedition to unify China and destroy the warlords. The Whampoa Military Academy was set up in March to train officers for the armies that would march against the warlords. Russian ships unloaded crates of weapons at the Guangzhou docks. Comintern advisers from Moscow joined Sun’s entourage. In October, shortly after he arrived back from Europe, Zhou Enlai was appointed director of the political department at the Whampoa Military Academy in Guangzhou. The Chinese Military Academy emblem includes its motto, which was first proclaimed by Sun Yat-sen at the Whampoa Academys opening in 1924. ...

Zhou soon realized the Kuomintang was riddled with intrigue. The powerful right wing of the Kuomintang was bitterly opposed to the Communist alliance. Zhou was convinced that the CCP, in order to survive must have an army of its own. "The Kuomintang is a coalition of treacherous warlords" he told his friend Nie Rongzhen, recently arrived from Moscow and named a vice director of the academy. Together they set about to organize a nucleus of officer cadets who were CCP members and who would follow the principles of Marx. For a while they met no hindrance, not even from Chiang Kai-shek, the director of the academy. Nie Rongzhen (Simplified Chinese: 聂荣臻, Traditional Chinese: 聶榮臻, py: Niè Róngzhēn Wade-Giles:Nieh Jung-chen) (1899-1992) was a Chinese Communist military leader. ... Location Position of Moscow in Europe Government Country District Subdivision Russia Central Federal District Federal City Mayor Yuriy Luzhkov Geographical characteristics Area  - City 1,081 km² Population  - City (2005)    - Density 10,415,400   8537. ... Karl Heinrich Marx (May 5, 1818, Trier, Germany – March 14, 1883, London) was a German philosopher, political economist, and revolutionary. ... Chiang Kai-shek (October 31, 1887 – April 5, 1975) was a Chinese military and political leader who assumed the leadership of the Kuomintang (KMT) after the 1925 death of Sun Yat-sen. ...

Sun Yat-sen died on March 12, 1925. No sooner was Sun dead than trouble broke out in Guangzhou. A warlord named Chen Chiungming made a bid to take the city and province. The East Expedition, led by Zhou, was organized as a military offensive against Chen. Using the disciplined core of CCP cadets they met with resounding success. Zhou was promoted to head Whampoa’s martial law bureau. Zhou quickly crushed an attempted coup by another warlord within the city. Chen Chiungming once again took the field in October 1925. Once again Zhou defeated him and this time captured the important city of Shantou on the South China coast. Zhou was appointed special commissioner of Shantou and surrounding region. Zhou began to build up a party branch in Shantou whose membership he would keep secret. March 12 is the 71st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (72nd in leap years). ... 1925 (MCMXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... The historic quarter of Shantou, which features both Western and Chinese architecture Shantou (Simplified Chinese: 汕头; Traditional Chinese: 汕頭; Hanyu Pinyin: ; POJ: Sòaⁿ-thau; also seen as Swátōw or Suátao) is a city of 784,000 in coastal eastern Guangdong Province, China, metropolitan area 4,721,117 (calculation...

On August 8, 1925, he and Deng Yingchao were finally married after a long distance courtship of nearly five years. The couple remained childless, but adopted many orphaned children of "revolutionary martyrs"; one of the more famous was future Premier Li Peng. August 8 is the 220th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (221st in leap years), with 145 days remaining. ... 1925 (MCMXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... Lĭ Péng (Simplified Chinese: 李鹏, Traditional Chinese: 李鵬, Wade-Giles: Li Peng) (b. ...

After Sun’s death the Kuomintang was run by a triumvirate composed of Chiang Kai-shek, Liao Zhungkai and Wang Jingwei, but in August, 1925 the left wing member, Liao Zhungkai, was murdered. Chiang Kai-shek used this murder to declare martial law and consolidate right wing control of the Nationalists. On 18 March 1926, while Mikhail Borodin, the Russian comintern advisor to the United Front, was in Shanghai. Chiang created a further incident to usurp power over the communists. The commander and crew of a Kuomintang gunboat was arrested at the Whampoa docks, See Zhongshan Warship Incident. This was followed by raids on the First Army Headquarters and Whampoa Military Academy. Altogether 65 communists were arrested, including Nie Rongzhen. A state of emergency was declared and curfews were imposed. Zhou had just returned from Shantou and was also detained for 48 hours. On his release he confronted Chiang and accused him of undermining the United Front but Chiang argued that he was only breaking up a plot by the communists. When Borodin returned from Shanghai he believed Chiang’s version and rebuked Zhou. At Chiang's request Borodin turned over a list of all the members of the CCP who were also members of the Kuomintang. The only exception were the members Zhou had secretly recruited. Chiang dismissed all the CCP officers from the First Army. Wang Jingwei, considered too sympathetic to the communists, was persuaded to leave on a “study tour” in Europe. Zhou Enlai was relieved of all his duties associated with the First United front, effectively giving complete control of the United Front to Chiang Kai-shek. Wang Jingwei * Courtesy name: Jixin (季新) * Alternate name: Zhaoming (兆銘). Wang Jingwei (Traditional Chinese: 汪精衛; Simplified Chinese: 汪精卫; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Wang Ching-wei) (May 4, 1883 – November 10, 1944), was a Chinese politician. ... March 18 is the 77th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (78th in leap years). ... Year 1926 (MCMXXVI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar). ... Mikhail Markovich Borodin (Михаи́л Бороди́н) (July 9, 1884, - May 29, 1951) was the alias of Mikhail Gruzenberg. ...

The Shanghai massacre

After the Northern Expedition began, he worked as a labour agitator. In 1926, he organized a general strike in Shanghai, opening the city to the Kuomintang. When the Kuomintang broke with the Communists, Zhou managed to escape the white terror. It has been said that he had been captured and released on the orders of Chiang Kai-Shek, to repay a debt from an occasion when Zhou had saved Chiang from violent leftists in Guangzhou. Zhou eventually made his way to the Jiangxi base area and gradually began to shift his loyalty away from the more orthodox, urban-focused branch of the CCP to Mao's new brand of rural revolution, and became one of the prominent members of the CCP. This transition was completed early in the Long March, when in January 1935 Zhou threw his total support to Mao in his power struggle with the 28 Bolsheviks Faction. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Shanghai (Chinese: ; pinyin:  ; Shanghainese: ), situated on the banks of the Yangtze River Delta in East China, is the largest city of the Peoples Republic of China and the eighth largest in the world. ... It has been suggested that The White Terror (France) be merged into this article or section. ... Chiang Kai-shek (October 31, 1887 – April 5, 1975) was a Chinese military and political leader who assumed the leadership of the Kuomintang (KMT) after the 1925 death of Sun Yat-sen. ... Guangzhou is the capital and the sub-provincial city of Guangdong Province in southern mainland China. ... Jiangxi (Chinese: 江西; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Chiang-hsi; Postal System Pinyin: Kiangsi) is a southern province of the Peoples Republic of China, spanning from the banks of the Yangtze River in the north into hillier areas in the south. ... Overview map of the course of the Long March The Long March (Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ChángzhÄ“ng) was a massive military retreat undertaken by the armies of the Communist Party of China with the support of the Peoples Liberation Army, to evade the turning point of the Kuomintang... The Twenty Eight Bolsheviks were a group of Chinese students who studied at the Moscow Sun Yat-sen University from the late 1920s until early 1935. ...

In the Yan'an years, Zhou was active in promoting a united anti-Japanese front. As a result, he played a major role in the Xi'an Incident, helped to secure Chiang Kai-shek's release, and negotiated the Second CCP-KMT United Front, and coining the famous phrase "Chinese should not fight Chinese but a common enemy: the invader". Zhou spent the Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) as CCP ambassador to Chiang's wartime government in Chongqing and took part in the failed negotiations following World War II. Yanan (Chinese: 延安; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Yen-an), is a city in Shaanxi province, China. ... The Xian Incident of December 1936 (Traditional Chinese: 西安事變; Simplified Chinese: 西安事变; pinyin: Xīān Shìbìan) is an important episode of Chinese modern history, taking place in the city of Xian during the Chinese Civil War between the ruling Kuomintang (KMT or Nationalist Party) and the rebel Communist... Combatants Chinese Nationalists Chinese Communists Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Mao Zedong Strength 4,300,000 (July 1946) 3,650,000 (June 1948) 1,490,000 (June 1949) 1,200,000 (July 1946) 2,800,000 (June 1948) 4,000,000 (June 1949) The Chinese Civil War (Traditional Chinese: ; Simplified Chinese... The Second Sino-Japanese War was a major invasion of eastern China by Japan preceding and during World War II. It ended with the surrender of Japan in 1945. ... Chongqing (Simplified Chinese: , Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: Chóngqìng; Postal System Pinyin: Chungking) is the largest and most populous of the Peoples Republic of Chinas four provincial-level municipalities, and the only one in the less densely populated western half of China. ... Combatants Major Allied powers: United Kingdom Soviet Union United States Republic of China and others Major Axis powers: Nazi Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Harry Truman Chiang Kai-Shek Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tojo Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead...

Premiership

Zhou Enlai with President of the United States Richard Nixon, Beijing, 1972

In 1949, with the establishment of the People's Republic of China, Zhou assumed the role of Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs. In June 1953, he made the five declarations for peace. He headed the Communist Chinese delegation to the Geneva Conference and to the Bandung Conference (1955). He survived an assassination attempt by Kuomintang (KMT) on his way to Bandung. An American-made MK7 was planted on a charter plane Kashmir Princess scheduled for Zhou's trip. It killed sixteen civilian passengers instead, when Zhou Enlai changed his schedule at the last minute. In 1958, the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs was passed to Chen Yi but Zhou remained Prime Minister until his death in 1976. Image File history File links Zhou_Enlai_and_Nixon. ... Image File history File links Zhou_Enlai_and_Nixon. ... The presidential seal was used by President Hayes in 1880 and last modified in 1959 by adding the 50th star for Hawaii. ... Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. ... The Geneva Conference (April 26 - July 21, 1954) was a conference between many countries that agreed to end hostilities and restore peace in French Indochina and Korea. ... The Bandung Conference was a meeting of Asian and African states, most of which were newly independent, organized by Egypt, Indonesia, Burma, Ceylon(Sri Lanka), India, and Pakistan. ... The Chinese Nationalist Party (Traditional Chinese: ; Simplified Chinese: ; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Tongyong Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Chung-kuo Kuo-min-tang), commonly known as the Kuomintang (KMT), is a centre-right political party in the Republic of China on Taiwan, and is currently the largest political party in terms of sitting Legislative... Bandung is also the name of a Malaysian drink. ... Kashmir Princess was a L-749A Constellation aircraft owned by Air India that exploded in midair and crashed into the sea in 11 April 1955, killing 16 people. ... Statue of Chen Yi Chen Yi (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: Chén Yì; August 26, 1901 - June 6, 1972) was a Chinese communist military commander and politician. ...

Zhou's first major domestic focus after becoming premier was China's economy, at an ill stage after decades of war. He aimed at increased agricultural production, from the even re-distribution of land. Industrial progress was also on his to-do list. He additionally initiated the first environmental reforms in China.

In 1958, Mao Zedong began the Great Leap Forward, aimed at increasing China's production levels in industry and agriculture with unrealistic targets. As a popular and practical administrator, Zhou maintained his position through the Leap. The Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) was a great blow to Zhou. At its late stages in 1975, he pushed for the "four modernizations" to undo the damage caused from the campaigns. Mao redirects here. ... The Great Leap Forward (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: Dàyuèjìn) of the Peoples Republic of China was an economic and social plan to use Chinas vast population to rapidly transform mainland China from a primarily agrarian economy dominated by peasant farmers into a modern, industrialized... The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: Wúchǎn Jiējí Wénhuà Dà Gémìng; literally Proletarian Cultural Great Revolution; often abbreviated to 文化大革命 wénhuà dà gémìng, literally Great Cultural Revolution, or even simpler, to 文革 wéngé, Cultural Revolution) in the People... The Four Modernizations (simplified Chinese: 四个现代化; traditional Chinese: 四個現代化; pinyin: sì gè xiàn dài huà) were the goals of Deng Xiaoping’s reforms. ...

Zhou, shown here with Henry Kissinger and Mao Zedong.

Known as an able diplomat, Zhou was largely responsible for the re-establishment of contacts with the West in the early 1970s. He welcomed US President Richard Nixon to China in February 1972, and signed the Shanghai Communiqué. White House photo by Oliver Atkins. ... White House photo by Oliver Atkins. ... Henry Alfred Kissinger (born Heinz Alfred Kissinger on May 27, 1923) is a German-born American diplomat, Nobel laureate and statesman. ... Mao redirects here. ... The presidential seal was used by President Hayes in 1880 and last modified in 1959 by adding the 50th star for Hawaii. ... Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. ... The Joint Communique of the United States of America and the Peoples Republic of China, also known as the Shanghai Communiqué(上海公報）, was an important diplomatic document issued by the United States of America and the Peoples Republic of China; on February 28, 1972 during the U.S. President...

Discovering he had cancer, he began to pass many of his responsibilities onto Deng Xiaoping. During the late stages of the Cultural Revolution, Zhou was the target of the Gang of Four's political campaigns. Cancer is a class of diseases or disorders characterized by uncontrolled division of cells and the ability of these cells to invade other tissues, either by direct growth into adjacent tissue through invasion or by implantation into distant sites by metastasis. ... Deng Xiaoping with US President Jimmy Carter Deng Xiaoping   (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: Dèng XiÇŽopíng; Wade-Giles: Teng Hsiao-ping; August 22, 1904–February 19, 1997) was a leader in the Communist Party of China (CCP). ... The Gang of Four on trial The Gang of Four (Chinese: 四人帮; pinyin: ) was a group of Communist Party leaders in the Peoples Republic of China who were arrested and removed from their positions in 1976, following the death of Mao Zedong, and were blamed for the...

Zhou is widely seen by many to have had a moderating influence on some of the worst excesses of Mao's regime, although he did not wield the power necessary to bring about major changes to policy. It has been suggested that he used his powers to protect some of China's oldest religious and royalist sites from the rampages of Mao's Red Guards. After Chinese Economic reform and the June 4th Incident, the Communist government looses its tight control on speech. Many people stand up and question the former Chinese leaders and criticize their decisions. However, even on the Internet, the least controllable of media, hardly any mainland Chinese criticize Zhou. Many Chinese youths view him as their political idol. Some scholars even believe that Zhou's influences on Chinese youths are even greater than the most famous Chinese leader, Mao. However, There is no doubt that he was fundamentally a believer in the Communist ideal on which modern China was founded. Red Guards refer to socialist or communist militia formed to instigate, support, or defend communist revolutions. ...

Death and reactions

   

Zhou was hospitalized in 1974 for bladder cancer, but continued to conduct work from the hospital, with Deng Xiaoping as the First Deputy Premier, handling most of the important State Council matters. Zhou died on the morning of January 8, 1976, months before Mao Zedong. Zhou's death brought messages of condolences from many non-aligned states that he affected during his tenure as an effective diplomat and negotiator on the world stage, and many states saw Zhou's death as a terrible loss. After his death, his body was cremated and the ashes scattered by air over hills and valleys, which was what he wished. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (627x733, 125 KB) Summary Photo-journalist waives all creative rights to self-made photo. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (627x733, 125 KB) Summary Photo-journalist waives all creative rights to self-made photo. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (627x733, 124 KB)To see this image in 3D stereo use RED-CYAN plastic or paper glasses. ... Image File history File links 3d_glasses_red_cyan. ... January 8 is the 8th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1976 (MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday. ... Mao redirects here. ... Member states of the Non-Aligned Movement (2005). ...

Inside China, the infamous Gang of Four (Jiang Qing and Co.) had seen Zhou's death as an effective step forward in their political maneuvering, as the last major challenge was now gone in their plot to seize absolute power. At Zhou's funeral, Deng Xiaoping delivered the official eulogy, but was forced out of politics thereafter. Because Zhou was very popular with the people, many rose in spontaneous expressions of mourning across China, which the Gang considered to be dangerous. During the Qingming Festival in April 1976, the clamp-down on mourning for the "Beloved Premier" caused riots, largely because the Gang of Four believed people might manipulate the situation into expressing hatred towards them. The incident was popularly known as the Tiananmen Incident (天安門事件). Anti-Gang of Four poetry was found on some wreaths that were laid, and all wreaths were subsequently taken down at the Monument to the People's Heroes. These actions, however, only further enraged the people. This does not cite its references or sources. ... Jiang Qing, commonly referred to as Madame Mao, (Chinese: ; pinyin: Jiāng QÄ«ng; Wade-Giles: Chiang Ching) (March 1914 ~ May 14, 1991), and used the stage name Lan Ping (蓝苹/Blue Apple), among other names, was the fourth wife of Chairman Mao Zedong of the Peoples Republic of... Deng Xiaoping with US President Jimmy Carter Deng Xiaoping   (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: Dèng XiÇŽopíng; Wade-Giles: Teng Hsiao-ping; August 22, 1904–February 19, 1997) was a leader in the Communist Party of China (CCP). ... Burning paper gifts for the departed. ... The Tiananmen incident took place in the Peoples Republic of China immediately following the April Fifth Movement. ... Monument to the Peoples Heroes The Monument to the Peoples Heroes (Chinese: 人民英雄纪念碑; Pinyin: ), Beijing, is a ten-story obelisk that was erected as a national monument of the Peoples Republic of China. ...

Since his death, a memorial hall has been dedicated to him and his beloved wife in Tianjin, named Tianjin Zhou Enlai Deng Yingchao Memorial Hall (天津周恩來鄧穎超紀念館), and the issue of national stamps commemorating the 1 year anniversary of his death in 1977, and again in 1998 commemorating his 100th birthday.

Footnotes

Further reading

• Eldest Son by Han Suyin, a general biography.
• There is a new book published in 2003 in Hong Kong, Zhou Enlai's Later Years by Gao Wenqian which is of interest. No English translation is currently available.

See also: History of the People's Republic of China Han Suyin (Chinese: 韩素音; pinyin: Hán Sùyīn) (born September 12, 1917), is the pen name of Elizabeth Comber, born Rosalie Elisabeth Kuanghu Chow (Chinese: 周光湖, pinyin: Zhōu Guānghú). She is a Chinese-born author of several books on modern China, novels set in East Asia, and autobiographical... From a political point of view, the Peoples Republic of China had, for several decades, been known as the political entity that is often synonymous with Mainland China. ...

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