From Enemies to "Tacit Allies:" Zhou Enlai and Sino-American Relations

A Book Talk with Dr. Chen Jian

Dr. CHEN Jian is the Director of the NYU Shanghai-ECNU Center on Global History, Economy and Culture, Distinguished Global Network Professor of History at NYU Shanghai and NYU, Hu Shih Professor Emeritus at Cornell University, Zijiang Distinguished Visiting Professor at East China Normal University, and Global Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center. His seminal biography of Zhou Enlai, was published by Harvard University Press.

Zhou Enlai, China’s premier of 27 years, was a central actor in the making of the Sino-American Rapprochement in the early 1970s, one of the most important events in 20th-century world history. It not only turned Beijing and Washington from bitter enemies to “tacit allies” (in Kissinger’s words) but also transformed the orientation or even essence of the Global Cold War. Zhou was one of a small group of Chinese and American officials whose prior work had enabled President Jimmy Carter and his Chinese counterpart Deng Xiaoping to accomplish the historic normalization of the bilateral relations in 1979. Reviewing how Zhou handled all the seemingly unresolvable difficulties of his time and found solutions to them may help us occupy an insightful position to cope with the mortal challenges facing Chinese-American relations in the 21st century.