Editing Zhou Enlai (section)

===Flight from Shanghai===
Fleeing Shanghai, Zhou made his way to [[Hankou]] (now part of [[Wuhan]]) and was a participant at the CCP's 5th National Congress there from 27 April to 9 May. At the end of the Congress, Zhou was elected to the Party's Central Committee, again heading the military department.<ref>Hsu 58</ref> After Chiang Kai-shek's suppression of the Communists, the Nationalist Party split in two, with the Nationalist Party's "left-wing" (led by [[Wang Jingwei]]) controlling the government in Hankou, and the party "right-wing" (led by Chiang Kai-shek) establishing a rival government in Nanjing. Still following Comintern instructions, the Communists remained as a "bloc inside" the Nationalist Party, hoping to continue expanding their influence through the Nationalists.<ref name="Hsu61">Hsu 61–64</ref> After being attacked by a warlord friendly to Chiang, Wang's leftist government disintegrated later in May 1927, and Chiang's troops began an organized purge of Communists in territories formerly controlled by Wang.<ref>Barnoun and Yu 38</ref> In mid-July Zhou was forced to go underground.<ref name="Hsu61" />

Pressured by their Comintern advisors, and themselves convinced that the "revolutionary high tide" had arrived, the Communists decided to launch a series of military revolts.<ref>Hsu 64</ref> The first of these was the [[Nanchang Uprising|Nanchang Revolt]]. Zhou was sent to oversee the event, but the moving figures seem to have been [[Tan Pingshan]] and [[Li Lisan]], while the main military figures were [[Ye Ting]] and [[He Long]]. In military terms, the revolt was a disaster, with the Communists' forces decimated and scattered.<ref>Wilbur</ref>

Zhou himself contracted malaria during the campaign and was secretly sent to Hong Kong for medical treatment by [[Nie Rongzhen]] and Ye Ting. After reaching Hong Kong, Zhou was disguised as a businessman named "Li" and entrusted to the care of local Communists. In a subsequent meeting of the CCP Central Committee, Zhou was blamed for the failure of the Nanchang campaign and temporarily demoted to being an alternate member of the Politburo.<ref>Barnouin and Yu 40–41</ref>