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Zhou Enlai (zh-stpw |t=周恩來 |s=周恩来 |p=Zhōu Ēnl?i |w=Chou En-lai) (March 5, 1898 – January 8, 1976), a prominent Communist Party of China|Chinese Communist leader, was Premier of the People's Republic of China from 1949 until his death. Born in Huai'an, Jiangsu Province, the adopted eldest son of a well-to-do Tianjin family, Zhou was educated at Nankai University and in Japan (1915-1918). On his return to Nankai he was briefly arrested for his radical associations. After his release in 1920 he studied in France, England and Germany. He had joined the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 1921 and Zhou returned to China in 1924 to work with Sun Yat-sen. On August 8, 1925, he married Deng Yingchao, a student activist, in Tianjin. She later became a prominent member of the CPC. The couple remained childless, but adopted many orphaned children of "revolutionary martyrs"; one of the more famous was future Premier Li Peng. Zhou first came to national prominence during the May Fourth Movement of 1919 when he led a raid on a local government office during the student protests against the humiliating Versailles Treaty. In 1920 Zhou moved to France where he was active among radical Chinese students. In 1921 he became a member of the French Communist Party and spent the next two years traveling in Europe. Upon his return to China, he served as the chairman of the political department at the Whampoa Military Academy in Guangzhou when it was founded in 1926 (Whampoa's Comintern sponsors saw this posting as a way to balance Chiang Kai-shek's right-wing nationalism). 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 was able to escape the white terror. It has been said that he had been captured and released on the orders on 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 CPC to Mao's new brand of rural revolution, and became one of the prominent members of the CPC. 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. In the Yenan years Zhou was active in promoting a united anti-Japanese front. As a result he played a major role in the Xian Incident, helped to secure Chiang Kai-shek's release, and negotiated the Chinese Civil War|Second CPC-KMT United Front. Zhou spent the Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) as CPC ambassador to Chiang's wartime government in Chongqing and took part in the failed negotiations following World War II. Image:Chou_Enlai.jpg|right|thumb|Zhou Enlai with President Nixon, Beijing, 1972In 1949, with the establishment of the People's Republic of China, Zhou became Premier and Foreign Minister. Asked about the impact of the French Revolution of 1789 he replied "It is too soon to say." In June 1953, he made the five declarations for peace. He headed the communist Chinese delegation to the Geneva Conference (1954)|Geneva Conference and to the Bandung Conference (1955). In 1958 he passed the post of Foreign Minister to Chen Yi (communist)|Chen Yi but remained Premier. 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 distribution of land. Industrial progress was also on his to-do list. 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. 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 Communique. 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 (China)|Gang of Four's political campaigns. Zhou was hospitalized in 1974 and died on January 8, 1976 merely months before Mao Zedong|Mao. In April 1976, the clamp-down on mourning for Zhou caused riots. This event is usually called the Tiananmen incident.
See also: History of the People's Republic of China
start box succession box | before = None | title = Premier of the People's Republic of China|Premier of the State Council | years = 1949–1976 | after = Hua Guofeng end box Category:1898 births|Zhou Enlai Category:1976 deaths|Zhou Enlai Category:CPC leaders Category:Cold War people Category:Chinese World War II people de:Zhou Enlai it:Zhou Enlai ja:周恩来 zh:周恩来 This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Zhou Enlai".
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