This first authoritative biography of the Premier of the Peoples Republic of China from 1949 to 1976, this volume offers an objective human portrait of one of the most important, most mythologized leaders in the history of communist China, based long-secret, classified documents. Photos.

This book challenges long-established views that Mao Zedong became Chinese Communist Party leader during the Long March (1934-1935) and that by 1935 the CCP was independent of the Comintern in Moscow. The result is a critique not only of official Chinese historiography but also of Western scholarship, which all future histories of the rise of the PRC will need to take into account.

When Gao Wenqian first published this groundbreaking, provocative biography in Hong Kong, it was immediately banned in the People's Republic. Using classified documents spirited out of the China, he offers an objective human portrait of the real Zhou Enlai, the premier of the People's Republic of China from 1949 until his death in 1976. Often touted as “the last perfect revolutionary,” Zhou is “a modern saint” who offered protection to his people during the Cultural Revolution, and an icon who allows modern Chinese to find an admirable figure in what was a traumatic and bloody era. But his greatest gift was to survive, at almost any price, thanks to his acute understanding of where political power resided at any one time.

A biography of Zhou Enlai, one of the most important and yet debatable political figures in the Chinese Communist Party. The authors give an in-depth analysis on the complex personality and controversial actions of Zhou, both as a person and a leader of the CCP.

A biography of Zhou Enlai, one of the most important and yet debatable political figures in the Chinese Communist Party. The authors give an in-depth analysis on the complex personality and controversial actions of Zhou, both as a person and a leader of the CCP.

Zhou Enlai, China's first premier, is overshadowed by Mao, but Zhou's influence in his own time and since has been vast. Chen Jian shows Zhou using his political and bureaucratic skills and centralism to mitigate the damage caused by Mao's radicalism and argues that Zhou created conditions for the post-Mao reforms that have made China a superpower.

This book comprises a range of Chinese primary documents as well as interviews in Beijing detailing the policies, principles and methods used by Zhou Enlai to sustain his practice of diplomacy as a committed revolutionary in the pursuit of China's "independence and self-reliance".