A Financial Times Best Book of the Year

The definitive biography of Zhou Enlai, the first premier and preeminent diplomat of the People’s Republic of China, who protected his country against the excesses of his boss—Chairman Mao.

Zhou Enlai spent twenty-seven years as premier of the People’s Republic of China and ten as its foreign minister. He was also its legendary spymaster. Richard Nixon proclaimed him “the greatest statesman of our era.” Yet Zhou has always been overshadowed by Chairman Mao. Chen Jian brings Zhou into the light, offering a nuanced portrait of a revolutionary and master diplomat whose vision shaped China and the broader world.

Born to a declining mandarin family in 1898, Zhou received a classical education and as a teenager spent time in modernizing Japan. Zhou embraced communist revolution as a vehicle for China’s own development, yet Zhou was never a committed Maoist. While he worked closely with the chairman, he used his extraordinary political and bureaucratic skill to mitigate the damage caused by Mao’s radicalism and maintain China’s international standing.

When Zhou died in 1976, the China we know today was not yet visible on the horizon. He never saw a glistening Shanghai skyline or the emergence of Chinese capitalism. But the Chinese influence now felt in every corner of the globe rests on Zhou’s work.

"Vividly stages [the enigma of Zhou Enlai] in all its complexity so that readers are forced to wrestle with Zhou’s paradoxes on their own. Chen’s prodigious research using Chinese, English, and Russian sources helps him paint an old-fashioned but enthralling narrative. Free of the kind of jargon and theoretical gibberish that strangles much other academic writing, [this] biography brings twentieth-century Chinese history alive in new and very personal ways." - Foreign Affairs

"Chen Jian has published a monumental biography of Zhou Enlai that makes him the pre-eminent scholar of the contemporary Chinese diaspora. [This] book, a comprehensive portrait of Zhou that took twenty years to research and write, will change [the way Zhou is perceived in the West]. Rather than merely applauding or attacking Zhou, it sets out to understand him at a level no previous work has approached…a compelling narrative." - London Review of Books

"A life of Zhou Enlai…can be nothing less than an exploration of China’s history during the greater part of the 20th century. Chen Jian has drawn on such an astonishing wealth of sources in Chinese archives and elsewhere that it is difficult to see how his biography could ever be bettered." - Literary Review

"A lucid, well-researched narrative…a satisfyingly fine-grained account of an influential figure often lost in Maoʼs shadow." - Publishers Weekly

"Chen delivers an authoritative, incisive look at an unquestionably significant historical figure. An excellent biography and capable deconstruction of the labyrinthine mechanics behind the CCP’s development." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Enlightening and moves along briskly…describes [Zhou’s] initiatives with clarity and detail." - Los Angeles Review of Books

"Magnificent and thoroughly detailed…[a] comprehensive and important work." - New Criterion

"Impressive…a prodigiously researched narrative." - China Books Review

"This will likely be the standard biography of Zhou Enlai for a generation." - American Historical Review

"An illuminating work of historical scholarship…one cannot help but come away from [this book] impressed by the enormous breadth of Zhou’s work and his unquestioned accomplishments." - Chinese Studies International

"Expertly crafted…Chen tactfully pulls Premier Zhou Enlai from the shadows and presents an alternative history of twentieth-century China from the point of view of one of its less celebrated historical figures." - Pacific Affairs

"A useful and engaging biography that turns the spotlight on events that in so many ways shape Chinese politics today." - Inside Story

"Easy to read and useful for both historians of contemporary China and historians of international relations." - European Journal of East Asian Studies

"A model biography of 20th century China…This is a thoroughly entertaining, historically accurate portrayal of Zhou Enlai, consummate diplomat and intellectual giant of the CCP." - Choice