Editing Zhou Enlai (section)

===Intelligence work in Chongqing===
On 4 May 1939, the Politburo accepted Zhou's assessment that Zhou should focus his efforts on creating a network of secret CCP agents working covertly and for long periods. Communists were directed to join the KMT, if doing so would increase the ability of agents to infiltrate the KMT administrative, educational, economic, and military establishments. Under the cover of the Office of the Eighth Route Army (moved to a stately building on the outskirts of Chongqing), Zhou adopted a series of measures to expand the CCP intelligence network.<ref name="BY78">Barnouin and Yu 78</ref>

By the time that Zhou returned to Chongqing in May 1940, a serious rift had formed between the KMT and the CCP. Over the course of the next year, the relationship between the two parties degenerated into arrests and executions of Party members, covert attempts by agents of both sides to eliminate each other, propaganda efforts attacking each other, and major military clashes. The united front was officially abolished after the [[New Fourth Army Incident|Anhui Incident]] in January 1941, when 9,000 Communist soldiers of the [[New Fourth Army]] were ambushed, and their commanders either killed or imprisoned by government troops.<ref>Barnouin and Yu 77, 82–83</ref>

Zhou responded to the rift between the KMT and CCP by directing Party leaders to conduct their operations more secretly. He maintained propaganda efforts via the newspapers that he directed and kept in close contact with foreign journalists and ambassadors. Zhou increased and improved CCP intelligence efforts within the KMT, Wang Jingwei's [[Reorganized National Government of China|Nanjing government]], and the Empire of Japan, recruiting, training, and organizing a large network of Communist spies. [[Yan Baohang]], a secret Party member active in Chongqing diplomatic circles, informed Zhou that [[Führer|German dictator]] [[Adolf Hitler]] was planning to attack the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941. Under Zhou's signature, this information reached Stalin on 20 June, two days before Hitler attacked, though Stalin did not yet believe that Hitler would actually carry through with the attack.<ref>Barnouin and Yu 82–87</ref>