The Role of Zhou Enlai in the Cultural Revolution: A Contradictory Image from Diverse Sources

Abstract

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has worked hard of late to create a larger-than-life and infallible image of Zhou Enlai’s role in the Cultural Revolution through the use of massive, inaccurate data in numerous official publications. At the same time, the CCP also keeps thousands of archives of Zhou’s activities in the Cultural Revolution as “top state secrets.” Based on newly published materials including memoirs, interviews with participants of the Cultural Revolution, and many party leader speeches both reprinted in the West as well as delivered to the “masses” in China during the Cultural Revolution, this paper strongly challenges the perfect image of Zhou that exists in these official publications in China. According to author’s textual examination, Zhou was the one who served as Mao’s enthusiastic helper and strong supporter for launching the cataclysm. Zhou was the one who cooperated with the so-called “arch-criminals” of the Cultural Revolution-Lin Biao and the “Gang of Four”-on many occasions. Zhou tried his best to follow Mao closely by supporting the chaotic mass movements of the period.