Editing Zhou Enlai (section)

== Legacy ==
[[File:Statue of Zhou Enlai and Deng Yingchao.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Statue of Zhou and Deng in the [[Memorial to Zhou Enlai and Deng Yingchao]] in [[Tianjin]]. ]]By the end of his lifetime, Zhou was widely viewed as representing moderation and justice in Chinese popular culture.<ref name="TS1" /> Since his death, Zhou Enlai has been regarded as a skilled negotiator fluent in foreign languages, a master of policy implementation, a devoted revolutionary, and a pragmatic statesman with an unusual attentiveness to detail and nuance. He was also known for his tireless and dedicated work ethic, and his unusual charm and poise in public. He was reputedly the last Mandarin bureaucrat in the Confucian tradition. Zhou's political behavior should be viewed in light of his political philosophy as well as his personality. To a large extent, Zhou epitomized the paradox inherent in a Communist politician with traditional Chinese upbringing: at once conservative and radical, pragmatic and ideological, possessed of a belief in order and harmony as well as a faith, which he developed very gradually over time, in the progressive power of rebellion and revolution.

Though a firm believer in the Communist ideal on which the People's Republic was founded, Zhou is widely credited to have moderated the excesses of Mao's radical policies within the limits of his power.<ref name=":0">{{cite news |last1=Burns |first1=John F. |title=IN DEATH, ZHOU ENLAI IS STILL BELOVED (BUT A PUZZLE) |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/01/10/world/in-death-zhou-enlai-is-still-beloved-but-a-puzzle.html |work=The New York Times |date=10 January 1986 }}</ref> It has been assumed that he successfully protected several imperial and religious sites of cultural significance (such as the [[Potala Palace]] in [[Lhasa]] and [[Forbidden City]] in [[Beijing]]) from the Red Guards, and shielded many top-level leaders, including Deng Xiaoping, as well as many officials, academics and artists from purges.<ref name=":0" /> Deng Xiaoping was quoted as saying Zhou was "sometimes forced to act against his conscience in order to minimize the damage" stemming from Mao's policies.<ref name=":0" />

While many earlier Chinese leaders today have been subjected to criticism inside China, Zhou's image has remained positive and respected among contemporary Chinese. Many Chinese continue to venerate Zhou as possibly the most humane leader of the 20th century, and the CPC today promotes Zhou as a dedicated and self-sacrificing leader who remains a symbol of the Communist Party.<ref name="Pagefour1">Barnouin and Yu 4</ref> Even historians who list Mao's faults generally attribute the opposite qualities to Zhou: Zhou was cultured and educated whereas Mao was crude and simple; Zhou was consistent whereas Mao was unstable; Zhou was stoic whereas Mao was paranoid.<ref name="Ritter1">Ritter</ref> Following the death of Mao, Chinese press emphasized in particular his consultative, logical, realistic, and cool-headed leadership style.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Burns |first1=John P. |title=Reforming China's Bureaucracy, 1979–82 |journal=Asian Survey |date=June 1983 |volume=23 |issue=6 |page=702 |doi=10.2307/2644386|jstor=2644386 }}</ref>

[[File:Zhou enlai 21ee-1ZH31R030922.jpg|thumb|220px|Zhou with his niece Zhou Bingde]]
However, recent academic criticism of Zhou has focused on his late relationship with Mao, and his political activities during the Cultural Revolution, arguing that the relationship between Zhou and Mao may have been more complex than is commonly portrayed. Zhou has been depicted as unconditionally submissive and extremely loyal to Mao and his allies, going out of his way to support or permit the persecution of friends and relatives in order to avoid facing political condemnation himself. After the founding of the PRC, Zhou was unable or unwilling to protect the former spies that he had employed in the Chinese Civil War and the Second World War, who were persecuted for their wartime contacts with the enemies of the CCP. Early in the Cultural Revolution, he told Jiang Qing "From now on you make all the decisions, and I'll make sure they're carried out," and publicly declared that his old comrade, [[Liu Shaoqi]], "deserved to die" for opposing Mao. In the effort to avoid being persecuted for opposing Mao, Zhou passively accepted the political persecution of many others, including his own brother.<ref name="Ritter1" /><ref>Sun 143–144</ref><ref>Barnoun and Yu 87</ref>

A popular saying within China once compared Zhou to a ''budaoweng'' (a [[Roly-poly toy|tumbler]]), which can imply that he was a political opportunist. [[Li Zhisui]], then one of Mao's personal physicians, characterized Zhou as such and was severely critical of Zhou in his book ''[[The Private Life of Chairman Mao]]'', describing him as "Mao's slave, absolutely obsequiously obedient... Everything he did, he did to be loyal to Mao. Neither he nor [Deng Yingchao] had a shred of independent thought".<ref>{{Cite book|title = The Private Life of Chairman Mao|last = Zhisui|first = Li|publisher = Chatto & Windus|year = 1995|location = New York|page=460}}</ref> Li also described Mao's contradictory relationship with Zhou as one where he demanded total loyalty, "but because Zhou was so subservient and loyal, Mao held [Zhou] in contempt".<ref>{{Cite book|title = The Private Life of Chairman Mao|last = Zhisui|first = Li|publisher = Chatto & Windus|year = 1995|location = New York|page=897}}</ref> Some observers have criticized him as being too diplomatic: avoiding clear stands in complex political situations and instead becoming ideologically elusive, ambiguous, and enigmatic.<ref name=":0" /><ref name="Pagefour1" /> Several explanations have been offered to explain his elusiveness. Dick Wilson, the former chief editor of the [[Far Eastern Economic Review]], writes that Zhou's only option "was to go on pretending to support the [Cultural Revolution] movement, while endeavoring to deflect its successes, blunt its mischief and stanch the wounds it was inflicting."<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title = Zhou Enlai: A Biography|last = Wilson|first = Dick|publisher = Viking|year = 1984|location = New York}}</ref> This explanation for Zhou's elusiveness was also widely accepted by many Chinese after his death.<ref name=":0" /> Wilson also writes that Zhou "would have been hounded out of his position of influence, removed from control of the Government" were he to "make a stand and demand that Mao call off the campaign or bring the Red Guards to heel."<ref name=":1" />

Zhou's involvement in the Cultural Revolution is thus defended by many on the grounds that he had no choice other than political martyrdom. Due to his influence and political ability, the entire government may have collapsed without his cooperation. Given the political circumstances of the last decade of Zhou's life, it is unlikely that he would have survived a purge without cultivating the support of Mao through active assistance.<ref name="Pagefive1">Barnouin and Yu 5</ref>

Zhou received a great deal of praise from American statesmen who met him in 1971. [[Henry Kissinger]] wrote that he had been extremely impressed with Zhou's intelligence and character, describing him as "equally at home in philosophy, reminiscence, historical analysis, tactical probes, humorous repartee... [and] could display an extraordinary personal graciousness." Kissinger called Zhou "one of the two or three most impressive men I have ever met,"<ref>Kissinger</ref> stating that "his commands of facts, in particular his knowledge of American events and, for that matter, of my own background, was stunning."<ref>"Kissinger Describes Nixon Years". ''Daily Collegian''</ref> In his memoirs, [[Richard Nixon]] stated that he was impressed with Zhou's exceptional "brilliance and dynamism".<ref name="Ritter1" />

{{quote box|width=30%|quote="Mao dominated any gathering; Zhou suffused it. Mao's passion strove to overwhelm opposition; Zhou's intellect would seek to persuade or outmaneuver it. Mao was sardonic; Zhou penetrating. Mao thought of himself as a philosopher; Zhou saw his role as an administrator or a negotiator. Mao was eager to accelerate history; Zhou was content to exploit its currents."
|source=—Former U.S. Secretary of State [[Henry Kissinger]], ''On China'' (2011)<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4pFfYliTIMkC&q=suffused|title=On China|isbn=978-1-101-44535-8|last1=Kissinger|first1=Henry|date=2011-05-17|publisher=Penguin }}</ref>
}}

After coming to power, Deng Xiaoping may have overemphasized Zhou Enlai's achievements to distance the Communist Party from Mao's [[Great Leap Forward]] and [[Cultural Revolution]], both of which had seriously weakened the Party's prestige. Deng observed that Mao's disastrous policies could no longer represent the Party's finest hour, but that the legacy and character of Zhou Enlai could. Furthermore, Deng received credit for enacting [[Four Modernizations|successful economic policies]] that Zhou initially proposed.<ref>{{Cite journal|title = Deng Xiaoping: The Economist|last = Naughton|first = Barry|date = September 1993|journal = The China Quarterly|volume = 135|pages = 491–514|doi = 10.1017/S0305741000013886|s2cid = 154747048}}</ref> By actively associating itself with an already popular Zhou Enlai, Zhou's legacy may have been used (and possibly distorted) as a political tool of the Party after his death.<ref name="Pagefive1" />
[[File:BronzeStatue ZhouEnlai MeiyuanXincun Nanjing.jpg|thumb|A bronze statue of Zhou in Nanjing]]
Zhou remains a widely commemorated figure in China today. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Zhou ordered his hometown of [[Huai'an]] not to transform his house into a memorial and not to keep up the Zhou family tombs. These orders were respected within Zhou's lifetime, but today his family home and traditional family school have been restored, and are visited by a large number of tourists every year. In 1998, Huai'an, in order to commemorate Zhou's one hundredth birthday, opened a vast commemorative park with a museum dedicated to his life. The park includes a reproduction of [[Xihuating]], Zhou's living and working quarters in Beijing.<ref name="BY124">Barnouin and Yu 124–124</ref>

The city of Tianjin has established a [[Memorial to Zhou Enlai and Deng Yingchao|museum]] to Zhou and his wife [[Deng Yingchao]], and the city of Nanjing has erected a memorial commemorating Communist negotiations in 1946 with the Nationalist government which features a bronze statue of Zhou.<ref>''Nanjing Meiyuan New Village Memorial Hall''</ref> Stamps commemorating the first anniversary of Zhou's death were issued in 1977, and in 1998 to commemorate his 100th birthday.

The 2013 [[historical drama]] film [[The Story of Zhou Enlai]] features the trip of Zhou Enlai in May 1961 during the [[Great Leap Forward]], when he investigated the rural situation in Huaxi of [[Guiyang]] and a former revolutionary base Boyan Township of [[Hebei]].