Zhou Enlai - Dillon, Michael

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Résumé :
Enigmatic, Eminence grise, the 'power behind the throne' - these phrases sum up Zhou Enlai's long and varied, but always pivotal, political career in the Chinese Communist Party from the 1920s to 1970s. Born in 1898, Zhou witnessed several of the most important events in China's modern history and was a close associate of both the nationalist leader Chiang Kai-Shek and communist leader Mao Zedong, whom he served under as China's first premier from 1949 until 1976. Zhou was also a major ally of Deng Xiaoping - a source, for example, of major influence on his 'Four Modernizations' in agriculture, industry, science and technology, and the military. He was thus the prime architect of China's drive towards superpower status and one of the key determinants of China's central role in the modern world. Zhou does not conform readily to any of the stereotypes of communist leaders, Chinese or otherwise. Cultivated and urbane, he was a sympathetic and intellectual character, who was well-liked by non-communists, foreigners and his staff. He was one of the most complex figures in the politics of contemporary China, and certainly one of the most interesting, although his influence was never all that obvious. In this book, Michael Dillon restores him to his rightful place in history and analyses the role of a man who was 'a genuine statesman rather than just a political operator'....

Biographie:
Michael Dillon was founding Director of the Centre for Contemporary Chinese Studies at the University of Durham, where he taught modern Chinese history. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the Royal Asiatic Society and was Visiting Professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing in 2009....

Sommaire:

Acknowledgments
Preface: Life and Career of an Enigmatic Revolutionary - 4
Chapter 1 Growing up in Huai'an, the Northeast, Tianjin and Japan: 1898-1920 - 9
Chapter 2 French lessons and revolutionary politics: 1920-4 - 37
Chapter 3 Guangzhou and the Huangpu Military Academy 1924-26: - 56
Chapter 4 In the eye of the storm, Shanghai and Wuhan: 1927 - 73
Chapter 5 Crisis for CCP and 6th Party Congress in Moscow: 1927-8 - 91
Chapter 6 Jiangxi Soviet: 1931-4 - 110
Chapter 7 Long March and Yan'an: 1936 - 128
Chapter 8 Xi'an - Kidnap and Resistance: 1937 - 140
Chapter 9 Partners at War: 1937-45 - 161
Chapter 10 Chongqing and Nanjing: War, Civil War and Liberation 1945-9 - 186
Chapter 11 Preparing for Power - Yan'an, Chongqing and Nanjing: 1943-6 -202
Chapter 12 Civil War to People's Republic: 1946-9 - 218
Chapter 13 Premier and Foreign Minister: 1949-55 - 230
Chapter 14 From rustic stage to international arena: 1954-5 - 254
Chapter 15 The Intelligentsia and Internal Power Struggles: 1955-7 - 267
Chapter 16 Asian Diplomatic mission: 1956-7 - 276
Chapter 17 'Rectification' and 'rightists': 1957 - 284
Chapter 18 Into the Crucible - the Great Leap Forward: 1958 - 294
Chapter 19 High Noon at Lushan: 1958-9 - 305
Chapter 20 Famine, Drought, and Recovery 1959-62 - 317
Chapter 21 Twilight of the Long March leadership: prelude to Cultural Revolution 1962-5 - 334
Chapter 22 From Natural Disaster to Political Catastrophe - the Cultural Revolution: 1966-7 - 345
Chapter 23 Descent into Chaos, Recovery and the Final Years: 1967-76 - 362
Conclusion: the revolutionary, the statesman and the man - 377
Bibliography - 376