Chou+En-Lai

Chou En-Lai
Born into a family of lower gentry on March 5, 1898, Chou was educated in China, Japan, and Europe, and became one of the earliest members of the Chinese Communist party. Chou threw himself into the first wave of revolutionary organizing with great zeal, distinguishing himself through his work with students, workers, intellectuals and military, and becoming a senior party leader by age 26. A skilled negotiator, Chou persuaded Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek to join forces against Japan in 1936, and represented the Communist party in Chiang's government during the United Front period. An honest and effective leader, he gained domestic and international support for the CCP through his persuasiveness and personal charm.

With the founding of the People's Republic of China in October 1949, Chou became its premier, in charge of state bereaucracy, and also served as foreign minister until 1958. Throughout his tenure, Chou developed his reputation as a peacemaker at home and abroad, able to reach the widest possible agreement among divergent parties and positions. During the years of political chaos brought on by Mao's domestic policies, Chou held the party together as the only major leader respected by the many warring Communist factions. Throughout the Cultural Revolution, Chou backed Mao's radical line but kept Mao's excesses in check, personally intervening to protect indivuals and important historical sites from Red. ( In courtesy of marxists)

While he insisted that "We owe all our achievement to Chairman Mao's brilliant leadership," there is no doubt that Chou was a driving force behind China's dramatic rapprochement with the United States in the 1970s. In his first secret meetings with Henry Kissinger in 1971, Chou greatly impressed the American diplomat with his ability to soften "the edges of ideological hostility by an insinuating ease of manner and a seemingly effortless skill to penetrate to the heart of the matter."Chou came under bitter political attack from his party's extreme left wing in the last years of his life. After Chou's death from cancer in 1976, unprecedented popular demonstrations were held in Tiananmen Square by mourners prevented by anti-Chou leaders then in power from memorializing him. Chou is remembered today as one of China's most respected and best loved leaders, renowned for his brilliant diplomacy, as well as his personal humility and simple life-style.