Editing Zhou Enlai (section)

===Relationship with Mao Zedong===
In 1943, Zhou's relationship with Chiang Kai-shek deteriorated, and he returned permanently to Yan'an. By then, Mao Zedong had emerged as the [[Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party]] and was attempting to have his political theories (literally [[Maoism|"Mao Zedong Thought"]]) accepted as the Party's dogma. Following his ascent to power, Mao organized [[Yan'an Rectification Movement|a campaign]] to indoctrinate the members of the CCP. This campaign became the foundation of the Maoist personality cult that later dominated Chinese politics until the end of the [[Cultural Revolution]].<ref name="Ninetyfive1">Barnouin and Yu 91–95</ref>

After returning to Yan'an, Zhou Enlai was strongly and excessively criticized in this campaign. Zhou was labelled, along with the generals [[Peng Dehuai]], [[Liu Bocheng]], [[Ye Jianying]], and [[Nie Rongzhen]], as an "empiricist" because he had a history of cooperating with the Comintern and with Mao's enemy, [[Wang Ming]]. Mao publicly attacked Zhou as "a collaborator and assistant of dogmatism... who belittled the study of Marxism-Leninism". Mao and his allies then claimed that the CCP organizations that Zhou had established in southern China were in fact led by KMT secret agents, a charge which Zhou firmly denied, and which was only withdrawn after Mao became convinced of Zhou's loyalty in the latest period of the campaign.<ref name="Ninetyfive1" />

Zhou defended himself by engaging in a long series of public reflections and self-criticisms, and he gave a number of speeches praising Mao and Mao Zedong Thought and giving his unconditional acceptance of Mao's leadership. He also joined Mao's allies in attacking [[Peng Shuzhi]], [[Chen Duxiu]], and [[Wang Ming]], who Mao viewed as enemies. The persecution of Zhou Enlai distressed Moscow, and [[Georgi Dimitrov]] wrote a personal letter to Mao indicating that "Zhou Enlai... must not be severed from the Party." In the end, Zhou's enthusiastic acknowledgement of his own faults, his praise for Mao's leadership, and his attacks on Mao's enemies eventually convinced Mao that Zhou's conversion to Maoism was genuine, a precondition for Zhou's political survival. By the seventh congress of the CCP in 1945, Mao was acknowledged as the overall leader of the CCP, and the dogma of Mao Zedong Thought was firmly entrenched among the Party's leadership.<ref name="Ninetyfive1" />