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'.

This book examines Britain's recognition of the newly established Peoples' Republic of China in 1950 and the developments leading to the establishment of formal Anglo-Chinese diplomatic relations in 1954. The importance of the USA in Anglo-Chinese relations is also highlighted by this study. Based on archival materials and interviews, this is an attempt to apply a decision-making framework to study the formulation and implementation of Britain's China policy and to explore revolutionary China's conduct in international relations.

One of the most tumultuous periods in modern Chinese history, the Cultural Revolution affected virtually all Chinese people and all aspects of Chinese life, including art, music and drama, education, factory management, economic planning, and medical care. Studies of the Cultural Revolution, in both Chinese and Western languages, have burgeoned over the past three decades. This comprehensive, easy-to-use bibliography provides a guide to published English-language sources on the Cultural Revolution. With over a thousand entries, it includes books, monographs, dissertations, and audio-visual materials on a broad range of topics from the military, education, religion, and economics to foreign relations, population, art, literature, and drama. Including titles published through the end of 1997 and a few in 1998, the book provides a general overview of the literature on the Chinese Cultural Revolution and its impact on China. Its scope and coverage make it a useful resource for any library whose readers have an interest in modern Chinese history.

Zhou Enlai, the premier of the People's Republic of China from 1949 until his death in 1976, is the last Communist political leader to be revered by the Chinese people. He is considered "a modern saint" who offered protection to his people during the Cultural Revolution; an admirable figure in an otherwise traumatic and bloody era. Works about Zhou in China are heavily censored, and every hint of criticism is removed -- so when Gao Wenqian first published this groundbreaking, provocative biography in Hong Kong, it was immediately banned in the People's Republic. Using classified documents spirited out of China, Gao Wenqian offers an objective human portrait of the real Zhou, a man who lived his life at the heart of Chinese politics for fifty years, who survived both the Long March and the Cultural Revolution not thanks to ideological or personal purity, but because he was artful, crafty, and politically supple. He may have had the looks of a matinee idol, and Nixon may have called him "the greatest statesman of our era," but Zhou's greatest gift was to survive, at almost any price, thanks to his acute understanding of where political power resided at any one time.

After graduating from the Beijing Film Academy in 1982, directors like Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou transformed Chinese cinema with Farewell My Concubine, Yellow Earth, Raise the Red Lantern, and other international successes. Memoirs from the Beijing Film Academy tells the riveting story of this class of 1982, China’s famous "Fifth Generation" of filmmakers. It is the first insider’s account of this renowned cohort to appear in English. Covering these directors’ formative experiences during China’s tumultuous Cultural Revolution and later at the Beijing Film Academy, Ni Zhen—who was both their screenwriter and teacher—provides unique insights into the origins of the Fifth Generation’s creativity. Drawing on his personal knowledge and interviews conducted especially for this volume, Ni Zhen demonstrates the diversity of the Fifth Generation. He comments on the breadth of styles and themes explored by its members and introduces a range of male and female directors, cinematographers, and production designers famous in China but less well-known internationally. The book contains vivid descriptions of the production processes of two pioneering films—One and Eight and Yellow Earth.

This is the first book of its kind to employ hundreds of Chinese sources to explain the history and current state of Chinese Communist intelligence operations. It profiles the leaders, top spies, and important operations in the history of China's espionage organs, and links to an extensive online glossary of Chinese language intelligence and security terms. Peter Mattis and Matthew Brazil present an unprecedented look into the murky world of Chinese espionage both past and present, enabling a better understanding of how pervasive and important its influence is, both in China and abroad.

The impressive Second Edition of this standard study incorporates important new evidence on the origins of the war from Chinese and Russian archives. It reveals that Stalin encouraged the attack on South Korea, but also confirms that the original initiative came from North Korea. Peter Lowe has also written an extended conclusion with a discussion of the Koreas in the late 1990s, and the challenges involved in securing their reunification.