To mark the 125th anniversary of the birth of Zhou Enlai – one of the top leaders of the Chinese Revolution, and Premier of People’s China from 1949 until his death in 1976 – we conducted an extensive interview with Professor Ken Hammond about Zhou’s life and legacy.
The interview covers Zhou Enlai’s formation as a revolutionary; his role in the early years of the Chinese Revolution in the 1920s; his working relationship with Mao Zedong; his contribution to Marxist understanding of socialist foreign policy; his role in establishing links of solidarity between China and Africa; his role in the negotiations with Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon that brought about the start of a rapprochement between the US and China; his experiences in the Cultural Revolution; and his lasting legacy, both in China and globally.
Ken Hammond is a professor of East Asian and Global History at New Mexico State University, founding director of the Confucius Institute at New Mexico State University, and an activist with Pivot to Peace. He’s also a member of the Friends of Socialist China advisory group, and is working on a biography of Zhou Enlai. He is interviewed by our co-editor Carlos Martinez.
Greetings. I am the co-founder, with my wife Zhou Xiaofang, of the Zhou Enlai Peace Institute. We were co-publishers, with Zhou Bingde, of the English translation of “My Uncle Zhou Enlai.” We enjoyed your March 5 video interview very much, thank you. I would like to be in touch, and hear what you’re working on today. We’re completing work on a study of the Xi’an Incident, and Zhou Enlai’s role in it. Here’s our tribute this year, on his 125th birthday:http://www.zhouenlaipeaceinstitute.org/stories/zhou-enlai-125th-birthday/