The dictator’s enabler: Searching for the real Zhou Enlai
- Foreign Affairs
- 103(5), Sep-Oct, 2024: p.190-198
This article examines the enduring question of whether an intelligent, rational leader can work alongside an autocrat as ruthless as Mao Zedong without losing his moral integrity. Using Chen Jian’s biography of Zhou Enlai as a focal point, it explores Zhou’s reputation as a premier who valiantly constrained Mao’s worst excesses, shielded colleagues from the harshest purges, and helped prevent China’s collapse during revolutionary upheavals. The analysis highlights Zhou’s pragmatic balancing act—protecting continuity in governance while remaining complicit in Mao’s campaigns—and situates his legacy within broader debates on leadership under authoritarian systems. Nearly fifty years after his death, Zhou continues to be remembered in China as a humane figure who navigated impossible circumstances, raising enduring questions about compromise, loyalty, and survival in political history. Is it possible for an intelligent, rational counterpart to work alongside an autocrat as ruthless as Mao Zedong without losing his soul? This is the Faustian question that hovers over Chen Jian’s new biography of China’s longtime premier, Zhou Enlai. Nearly 50 years after his death, Zhou still enjoys a reputation in China as a leader who valiantly constrained some of Mao’s worst excesses, managed to shield some colleagues from the most brutal aspects of his purges, and helped prevent the country from completely collapsing during his most tectonic revolutionary campaigns. – Reproduced