Editing Zhou Enlai (section)

===Economic and diplomatic activities===
Despite worsening relations with [[Chiang Kai-shek]], Zhou operated openly in Chongqing, befriending Chinese and foreign visitors and staging public cultural activities, especially Chinese theater. Zhou cultivated a close personal friendship with General [[Feng Yuxiang]], making it possible for Zhou to circulate freely among the officers of the Nationalist Army. Zhou befriended the General He Jifeng, and convinced He to secretly become a member of the CCP during an official visit to Yan'an. Zhou's intelligence agents penetrated the [[Sichuan]]ese army of General [[Deng Xihou]], resulting in Deng's secret agreement to supply ammunition to the Communist New Fourth Army. Zhou convinced another Sichuanese general, [[Li Wenhui]], to covertly install a radio transmitter that facilitated secret communication between Yan'an and Chongqing. Zhou befriended [[Zhang Zhizhong]] and [[Nong Yun]], commanders in the [[Yunnan]] armed forces, who became secret CCP members, agreed to cooperate with the CCP against Chiang Kai-shek, and established a clandestine radio station that broadcast Communist propaganda from the provincial government building in [[Kunming]].<ref>Barnouin and Yu 88</ref>

Zhou remained the primary CCP representative to the outside world during his time in Chongqing. Zhou and his aides [[Qiao Guanhua]], [[Gong Peng]] and [[Wang Bingnan]] enjoyed receiving foreign visitors and made a favorable impression among American, British, Canadian, Russian, and other foreign diplomats. Zhou struck visitors as charming, urbane, hard-working, and living a very simple lifestyle. In 1941, Zhou received a visit from [[Ernest Hemingway]] and his wife, [[Martha Gellhorn]]. Gellhorn later wrote that she and Ernest were extremely impressed with Zhou (and extremely unimpressed with Chiang), and they became convinced that the Communists would take over China after meeting him.<ref>Barnouin and Yu 89</ref>

Because Yan'an was incapable of funding Zhou's activities, Zhou partially funded his efforts through donations from sympathetic foreigners, overseas Chinese, and the [[China Welfare Institute|China Defense League]] (supported by Sun Yat-sen's widow, [[Soong Ching-ling]]). Zhou also undertook to start and run a number of businesses throughout KMT- and Japanese- controlled China. Zhou's businesses grew to include several trading companies operating in several Chinese cities (primarily Chongqing and Hong Kong), a silk and satin store in Chongqing, an oil refinery, and factories for producing industrial materials, cloths, Western medicines, and other commodities.<ref name="BY80">Barnouin and Yu 79–80</ref>

Under Zhou, Communist businessmen made great profits in currency trading and commodity speculation, especially in American dollars and gold. Zhou's most lucrative business was generated by several opium plantations that Zhou established in remote areas. Although the CCP had been engaged in the eradication of opium smoking since its establishment, Zhou justified opium production and distribution in KMT-controlled areas by the huge profits generated for the CCP, and by the debilitating effects that opium addiction might have on KMT soldiers and government officials.<ref name="BY80" />