Editing Zhou Enlai (section)

==The Cultural Revolution==
{{Main|Cultural Revolution}}

===Initial efforts of Mao and Lin===

[[File:Zhou Enlai and Li Ne.jpg|thumb|Zhou in 1966, the first year of the Cultural Revolution (with [[Li Na (daughter of Mao Zedong)|Li Na]], daughter of Mao)]]

To improve his image and power, Mao, with the help of [[Lin Biao]], undertook a number of public propaganda efforts. Among the efforts of Mao and Lin to improve Mao's image in the early 1960s were Lin's publication of the ''[[Diary of Lei Feng]]'' and his compilation of ''[[Quotations from Chairman Mao]]''.<ref>Spence 566</ref> The last and most successful of these efforts was the [[Cultural Revolution]].

Whatever its other causes, the Cultural Revolution, declared in 1966, was overtly pro-Maoist, and gave Mao the power and influence to purge the Party of his political enemies at the highest levels of government. Along with closing China's schools and universities, it exhorted of young Chinese to destroy old buildings, temples, and art, and to attack their [[Revisionism (Marxism)|"revisionist"]] teachers, school administrators, party leaders, and parents.<ref name="CR1">Spence 575</ref> After the Cultural Revolution was announced, many of the most senior members of the CCP who had shared Zhou's hesitation in following Mao's direction, including President [[Liu Shaoqi]] and [[Deng Xiaoping]], were removed from their posts almost immediately; they, along with their families, were subjected to mass criticism and humiliation.<ref name="CR1" />

===Political survival===

Soon after they had been removed, Zhou argued that President [[Liu Shaoqi]] and Deng Xiaoping "should be allowed to come back to work", but this was opposed by Mao, [[Lin Biao]], [[Kang Sheng]] and [[Chen Boda]]. Chen Boda even suggested that Zhou himself might be "considered counter-revolutionary" if he did not toe the Maoist line.<ref>Dittmer 130–131</ref> Following the threats that he would share in the fate of his comrades if he did not support Mao, Zhou ceased his criticisms and began to work more closely with the chairman and his clique.

Zhou gave his backing to the establishment of radical [[Red Guards (People's Republic of China)|Red Guard]] organizations in October 1966 and joined [[Chen Boda]] and [[Jiang Qing]] against what they considered "leftist" and "rightist" Red Guard factions. This opened the way for attacks on Liu Shaoqi, Deng Xiaoping, and [[Tao Zhu]] in December 1966 and January 1967.<ref>Dittmer 142–143</ref> By September 1968, Zhou candidly described his strategy for political survival to Japanese LDP parliamentarians visiting Beijing: "one's personal opinions should advance or beat a retreat according to the direction of the majority."<ref>Dittmer 144–145</ref> When he was accused of being less than enthusiastic in following Mao's leadership, he accused himself of "poor understanding" of Mao's theories, giving the appearance of compromising with forces that he secretly loathed and referred to in private as his "inferno".<ref>Barnouin and Yu 4–5</ref> Following the logic of political survival, Zhou worked to aid Mao, and restricted his criticisms to private conversations.

Although Zhou escaped direct persecution, he was not able to save many of those closest to him from having their lives destroyed by the Cultural Revolution. [[Sun Weishi]], Zhou's adopted daughter, died in 1968 after seven months of torture, imprisonment, and rape by Maoist [[Red Guards (China)|Red Guards]]. In 1968, Jiang also had his adopted son (Sun Yang) tortured and murdered by [[Red Guards (China)|Red Guards]]. After the end of the Cultural Revolution, Sun's plays were re-staged as a way of criticizing the [[Gang of Four]], whom many thought were responsible for her death.<ref>Li and Ho 500</ref>

Throughout the next decade, Mao largely developed policies while Zhou carried them out, attempting to moderate some of the excesses of the Cultural Revolution, such as preventing Beijing from being renamed "[[The East Is Red (song)|East Is Red]] City" ({{lang-zh|s=东方红市|p=Dōngfānghóngshì}}) and the [[Chinese guardian lions]] in front of [[Tienanmen Square]] from being replaced with statues of Mao.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Mao's Last Revolution|first1=Roderick|last1=Macfarquhar|first2=Michael|last2=Schoenhals|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=2008|pages=118–119}}</ref> Zhou also ordered a PLA battalion to guard the Forbidden City and protect its traditional artifacts from vandalism and destruction by Red Guards.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1864846/amazing-journey-how-china-hid-palace-artefacts-japanese|title=Amazing journey: how China hid palace artefacts from Japanese invaders|work=South China Morning Post|access-date=15 June 2018}}</ref> Zhou detested the ''[[Revolutionary opera|yangbanxi]].<ref name=":Minami">{{Cite book |last=Minami |first=Kazushi |title=People's Diplomacy: How Americans and Chinese Transformed US-China Relations during the Cold War |date=2024 |publisher=[[Cornell University Press]] |isbn=9781501774157 |location=Ithaca, NY |pages=}}</ref>''{{Rp|page=167}} Despite his best efforts, the inability to prevent many of the events of the Cultural Revolution were a great blow to Zhou. Over the last decade of his life, Zhou's ability to implement Mao's policies and keep the nation afloat during periods of adversity was so great that his practical importance alone was sufficient to save him (with Mao's assistance) whenever Zhou became politically threatened.<ref name="Pagefive1"/> At the latest stages of the Cultural Revolution, in 1975, Zhou pushed for the "[[Four Modernizations]]" in order to undo the damage caused by Mao's policies.

During the later stages of the Cultural Revolution, Zhou became a target of political campaigns orchestrated by Chairman Mao and the [[Gang of Four]]. The "[[Criticize Lin, Criticize Confucius]]" campaign of 1973 and 1974 was directed at Premier Zhou because he was viewed as one of the Gang's primary political opponents. In 1975, Zhou's enemies initiated a campaign named "Criticizing [[Song Jiang]], Evaluating ''the [[Water Margin]]''", which encouraged the use of Zhou as an example of a political loser.<ref>Bonavia 24</ref>