Editing Zhou Enlai (section)

===Position on Taiwan===
{{See also|One-China policy}}
[[File:Enlai yingchao.jpg|thumb|right|Zhou and his wife Deng at the [[Badaling]] section of the [[Great Wall of China]] (1955)]]
When the PRC was founded on 1 October 1949, Zhou notified all governments that any countries wishing to have diplomatic contact with the PRC must end their relationship with the leaders of the former regime on Taiwan, and support the PRC's claim to China's seat in the United Nations. This was the first foreign policy document issued by the new government. By 1950, the PRC was able to gain diplomatic relationships with other communist countries and with thirteen non-communist countries, but talks with most Western governments were unsuccessful.<ref>Barnouin and Yu 134</ref>

Zhou emerged from the Bandung conference with a reputation as a flexible and open-minded negotiator. Recognizing that the United States would back the ''de facto'' independence of ROC-controlled Taiwan with military force, Zhou persuaded his government to end the shelling of [[Kinmen]] and [[Matsu Islands|Matsu]], and to search for a diplomatic alternative to the confrontation instead. In a formal announcement in May 1955, Zhou declared that the PRC would "strive for the liberation of Taiwan by peaceful means so far as it is possible."<ref>Spence 528</ref> Whenever the question of Taiwan was raised with foreign statesmen, Zhou argued that Taiwan was part of China, and that the resolution of the conflict with the Taiwan authorities was an internal matter.<ref>Barnouin and Yu 158</ref>

In 1958 the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs was passed to [[Chen Yi (communist)|Chen Yi]], a general with little prior diplomatic experience. After Zhou resigned his office in Foreign Affairs, the PRC diplomatic corps was reduced dramatically. Some of the staff were transferred to various cultural and educational departments to replace leading cadres who had been labelled [[Anti-Rightist Movement|"rightists"]] and sent to work in labor camps.<ref>Barnouin and Yu 127,</ref>