biography
| name: |
Zhou Enlai
|
| |
also spelled Chou En-lai
|
pronunciation:
[joh enliy]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1898–1975)
|
| biography:
| One of the leaders of the Communist Party of China, and prime minister of the Chinese People's Republic from its inception in 1949 until his death, born in Huaian, Kiangsu Province, E China. He was political director of the Whampoa military academy, under the command of Jiang Jieshi. In 1927 he became a member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of China, and in 1932 was appointed to succeed Mao Zedong as political commissar of the Red Army, but after 1935, following Mao's elevation, he served him faithfully, becoming the Party's chief negotiator and diplomat. As minister of foreign affairs (and concurrently prime minister) he vastly increased China's international influence. Perhaps his greatest triumph of mediation was in the Cultural Revolution in China (1966–9), when he worked to preserve national unity and the survival of government against the forces of anarchy. |
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