Zhou Enlai, born on this day in 1898, was a communist revolutionary, statesman, and military officer who served as the 1st Premier of the People's Republic of China from 1949 to 1976. "All diplomacy is a continuation of war by other means."

Zhou was educated in a missionary college in Tianjin before studying at a Japanese university. In Tianjin, he met his future wife, Deng Yingchao while participating in a radical political group known as the "Awakening Society". In 1920, Zhou moved to France, where he helped form the overseas branch of the Communist Party of China. He also lived in Britain and Germany before returning to China in 1924.

While working in the Political Department of the Whampoa Military Academy, Zhou was also made the secretary of the Communist Party of Guangdong-Guangxi, and served as the CPC representative with the rank of major-general.

After the Chinese Civil War broke out in 1927, Zhou served in the communist forces, helping establish and oversee a network of underground cells of communist resistance. Zhou played a leading role in the Long March of 1934-35, an arduous military retreat of communist forces over 8,000 miles.

Following the Zunyi Conference in 1935, Mao Zedong became Zhou's assistant. After the conclusion of the Long March, Mao officially took over Zhou Enlai's leading position in the CPC, while Zhou took a secondary position as vice-chairman. Both would hold their leadership positions until their deaths in 1976.

Zhou was a prominent participant in the 1955 Asian–African Conference, held in Indonesia. The conference produced a declaration in strongly in favor of peace, the abolition of nuclear arms, general arms reduction, and the principle of universal representation at the United Nations. Zhou was critical of American imperial aggression and stated "the population of Asia will never forget that the first atom bomb was exploded on Asian soil."

Zhou passed away from bladder cancer on January 8th, 1976, just nine months before Mao Zedong's death in September that year.

"Today the first unification of the Chinese people has emerged. The people themselves have become the masters of Chinese soil, and the rule of the reactionaries in China has been irrevocably overthrown."

Zhou Enlai, from "Chinese People Will not Tolerate Aggression" (October 1950)

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        • Kaplya
          ·
          8 months ago

          CCP is not wrong. The switch to CPC did not happen until 1943 following the dissolution of Comintern (Communist International), to emphasize the national identity of the Communist Party of China.

          1928 flag of peasant uprising in Fujian Province, Pinghe County:

          Show

          • Vncredleader
            ·
            8 months ago

            I have been reading the letters of Dimitrov and Stalin and the entire China section is full of primary documents and yeah they say "Communist Party of China" and then use "ccp" or more often "cc-ccp" when talking about decisions the central committee made. And these are documents from Mao to the Comintern

            • Kaplya
              ·
              8 months ago

              Yes, and a lot of it is just translation choice. You’re reading English translation of Chinese and Russian letters decoded in their respective languages.

              In Russian, it’s always called Коммунистическая партия Китая (Kommunisticheskaya Partiya Kitaya, lit. Communist Party [of] China), and in Chinese it’s always called 中国共产党 (lit. Chinese Communist Party).

              There has never been a contention about its name in Russian and Chinese languages, it’s really up to how the Chinese communists referred to themselves in English during particular time periods.

              • Vncredleader
                ·
                8 months ago

                Exactly. End of the day when talking about the party today, use the term the party refers to itself as. Doesn't mean it was always that way, doesn't have to be. It is such a small thing which is why we make the correction. It shouldn't be difficult for people to adjust to CPC accordingly