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Thursday 24 September 2009
Zhou Enlai: gentle face of party who shaped the nation’s foreign policy
If Mao Zedong represented a face of young Communist China that was tough and unrelenting, Zhou Enlai was the one who softened the angles on that face and brought the country back onto the world stage.
Zhou Enlai: gentle face of party who shaped the nation’s foreign policy
Ng Tze-wei 24 September 2009
If Mao Zedong represented a face of young Communist China that was tough and unrelenting, Zhou Enlai was the one who softened the angles on that face and brought the country back onto the world stage.
From the United States, France and Japan, to “Asian neighbours” and “African brothers”, Zhou helped established diplomatic ties between the People’s Republic and the world at a most difficult period, when all but several Communist allies recognised Taiwan instead of Beijing as the seat of the Chinese government.
Former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger called him “intelligent, knowledgeable and noble” and compared him to French general Charles de Gaulle as one of the world’s best statesmen. Many others remarked on his elegance, humility and candidness.
The US table tennis team that visited China in 1971 would no doubt remember Zhou’s chat with long-haired player Glenn Cowan on the “hippie” movement. Zhou said it was understandable that “youths are dissatisfied with life, and want to seek truth and change, as his own generation did”, but, he added, he was not sure whether the hairstyle would suit Chinese youths.
Born into a humble scholar family in Jiangsu province on March 5, 1898, Zhou’s talents were recognised early when he became the first fully sponsored student at the famous Nankai University in Tianjin . He was later educated in Japan and Europe, and in France he helped set up the Communist Party. On his return to China he became a Politburo member at the age of 28.
Already an exceptional negotiator, he represented the party in many important negotiations with the Kuomintang and foreign countries. He grew familiar with foreign diplomats and journalists when he became the party representative in Chongqing - the wartime capital of China.
Zhou became premier when the People’s Republic was established in 1949 and served in the position till his death in 1976. He also served as foreign minister until 1958, during which he laid the foundations of Chinese foreign policy which are still adhered to today.
He declared the five principles for peaceful co-existence in 1953 as the fundamentals of China’s foreign policy - which emphasised “mutual respect” and “non-interference”.
He headed the Chinese delegation to the Geneva conference in 1954 and helped secure a truce in Indochina, and the independence of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.
At the Bandung conference in Indonesia in 1955, the first large-scale Asia-Africa meeting of many newly independent countries, China announced the basic principles of its Africa policies: support for anti-imperialist and anti-colonialist movements, and aid without political conditions.
Zhou’s emphasis on African ties was evident throughout his career, highlighted by his visit to 14 African and Arab countries over a four-month period in 1963 and 1964. During that trip he showed his support for Ghana’s president who was facing the threat of a coup at the time; and showed sincerity in heated discussions with pro-Western Tunisia, whose president decided to switch diplomatic ties to the PRC the next day.
In 1961, Zhou rejected France’s request that China abandon support for Algeria’s independence movement in exchange for diplomatic ties with the European power. In October 1971, Algeria initiated the resolution that got China back into the United Nations.
However, Zhou’s best-told tale remains his secret meetings with Kissinger in 1971, which led to former US president Richard Nixon’s visit to China in 1972. Kissinger recalled how at that first meeting the two exchanged ideas on international affairs like “university professors, mutually stimulating, and highly enjoyable”.
He was also impressed by Zhou’s flexibility and pragmatism in the wording of the Shanghai Communique, which at Zhou’s recommendation avoided the usual diplomatic vagueness, and spelled out the differences between the two countries up front. This turned out to lend strength to the common points, Kissinger said in an interview with the People’s Daily in 2006.
When Zhou died on January 8, 1976, condolences from leaders around the world lauded him as a “friend” and brilliant diplomat.
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Zhou Enlai: gentle face of party who shaped the nation’s foreign policy
Ng Tze-wei
24 September 2009
If Mao Zedong represented a face of young Communist China that was tough and unrelenting, Zhou Enlai was the one who softened the angles on that face and brought the country back onto the world stage.
From the United States, France and Japan, to “Asian neighbours” and “African brothers”, Zhou helped established diplomatic ties between the People’s Republic and the world at a most difficult period, when all but several Communist allies recognised Taiwan instead of Beijing as the seat of the Chinese government.
Former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger called him “intelligent, knowledgeable and noble” and compared him to French general Charles de Gaulle as one of the world’s best statesmen. Many others remarked on his elegance, humility and candidness.
The US table tennis team that visited China in 1971 would no doubt remember Zhou’s chat with long-haired player Glenn Cowan on the “hippie” movement. Zhou said it was understandable that “youths are dissatisfied with life, and want to seek truth and change, as his own generation did”, but, he added, he was not sure whether the hairstyle would suit Chinese youths.
Born into a humble scholar family in Jiangsu province on March 5, 1898, Zhou’s talents were recognised early when he became the first fully sponsored student at the famous Nankai University in Tianjin . He was later educated in Japan and Europe, and in France he helped set up the Communist Party. On his return to China he became a Politburo member at the age of 28.
Already an exceptional negotiator, he represented the party in many important negotiations with the Kuomintang and foreign countries. He grew familiar with foreign diplomats and journalists when he became the party representative in Chongqing - the wartime capital of China.
Zhou became premier when the People’s Republic was established in 1949 and served in the position till his death in 1976. He also served as foreign minister until 1958, during which he laid the foundations of Chinese foreign policy which are still adhered to today.
He declared the five principles for peaceful co-existence in 1953 as the fundamentals of China’s foreign policy - which emphasised “mutual respect” and “non-interference”.
He headed the Chinese delegation to the Geneva conference in 1954 and helped secure a truce in Indochina, and the independence of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.
At the Bandung conference in Indonesia in 1955, the first large-scale Asia-Africa meeting of many newly independent countries, China announced the basic principles of its Africa policies: support for anti-imperialist and anti-colonialist movements, and aid without political conditions.
Zhou’s emphasis on African ties was evident throughout his career, highlighted by his visit to 14 African and Arab countries over a four-month period in 1963 and 1964. During that trip he showed his support for Ghana’s president who was facing the threat of a coup at the time; and showed sincerity in heated discussions with pro-Western Tunisia, whose president decided to switch diplomatic ties to the PRC the next day.
In 1961, Zhou rejected France’s request that China abandon support for Algeria’s independence movement in exchange for diplomatic ties with the European power. In October 1971, Algeria initiated the resolution that got China back into the United Nations.
However, Zhou’s best-told tale remains his secret meetings with Kissinger in 1971, which led to former US president Richard Nixon’s visit to China in 1972. Kissinger recalled how at that first meeting the two exchanged ideas on international affairs like “university professors, mutually stimulating, and highly enjoyable”.
He was also impressed by Zhou’s flexibility and pragmatism in the wording of the Shanghai Communique, which at Zhou’s recommendation avoided the usual diplomatic vagueness, and spelled out the differences between the two countries up front. This turned out to lend strength to the common points, Kissinger said in an interview with the People’s Daily in 2006.
When Zhou died on January 8, 1976, condolences from leaders around the world lauded him as a “friend” and brilliant diplomat.
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