Mao tse tung zhou enlai biography

Premier of China from to

In this Chinese name, the family name is Zhou.

Zhou Enlai (Chinese: 周恩来; pinyin: Zhōu Ēnlái; Wade–Giles: Chou¹ Ên¹-lai²; 5 March &#;&#; 8 January ) was a Chinese statesman, diplomat, and revolutionary who served as the inaugural premier of the People's Republic of China (PRC) from until his death in , and concurrently as the inaugural Minister of Foreign Affairs from to Zhou was a key figure in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and ally of Mao Zedong during the Chinese Civil War, later helping consolidate its control, form its foreign policy, and develop the economy.

Born in Jiangsu, as a student Zhou was involved in the May Fourth Movement, and in the early s studied in France, where he joined the newly-founded CCP. During the party's alliance with the Kuomintang (KMT), he worked in the political department of the Whampoa Military Academy.

In , Zhou led the worker uprising which was crushed by the KMT in the