Zhou Enlai before and after the Zunyi Meeting

The Zunyi Conference saved the party, the Red Army, and the Chinese revolution at the most critical juncture. Looking back on this magnificent history, Comrade Zhou Enlai, who went out from the land of Jiangsu, played a very important role. In his speech at the symposium to commemorate the 120 anniversary of the birth of Comrade Zhou Enlai, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that at the Zunyi Conference, Zhou Enlai firmly supported Comrade Mao Zedong's correct propositions, in order to establish Comrade Mao Zedong's leadership in the Red Army and the Party Central Committee, and to save in crisis. The Red Army and the Party have played a very important role in achieving a historic turning point for the Chinese revolution.
From the fifth counter-campaign against "encirclement and suppression" to being forced to embark on the arduous long March, the Party and the Red Army faced heavy encirclement by the Kuomintang all the way, as well as a series of problems from within the party. Before and after the Zunyi meeting, the political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee held a total of six meetings, namely, the channel meeting before the Zunyi meeting, the Liping meeting, the Monkey Field meeting, and the Tashi meeting, the Gouba meeting, and the meeting after the Zunyi meeting. The seven meetings are organically linked and inseparable, reflecting the deliberation, convening and consolidation of the Zunyi meeting. At this time, Zhou Enlai, as the supreme leader, led, presided over, organized and participated in the whole process of the "16 series of meetings", and made many important and key contributions to the successful convening of the Zunyi Conference and the implementation of the results.
Before the meeting, Zhou Enlai reviewed the situation and laid a solid foundation for the smooth convening of the meeting. Zhou Enlai, as the organizer of the channel meeting, invited Mao Zedong to attend the meeting and adopted Mao Zedong's proposal on the principle that the minority is subordinate to the majority. The Red Army is officially ready to change direction and terminate the rendezvous with the Red 2. and the Red Sixth Army. In the organization of the Liping Conference, Zhou Enlai still vetoed Li De's wrong command by collective resolution in accordance with the democratic constitution of the party. In the Monkey Field Meeting, Zhou Enlai reiterated the spirit of the Liping Meeting, insisted on crossing the river northward to establish a new Soviet area, and emphasized strengthening the leadership of the Politburo over the combat policy and restoring the Military Commission to accept the collective leadership of the Politburo.
During the meeting, Zhou Enlai set the course to provide a fundamental guarantee for the success of the meeting. In the small conference room on the second floor of the Zunyi meeting site, three members of the Politburo Standing Committee gave three reports. Bogu first made a general report and reviewed the military mistakes, but overemphasized the objective reasons, the meeting reached an impasse, and there was no way to make a summary of error correction. Zhou Enlai then made a deputy report, took the initiative to make self-criticism, broke the deadlock, restored the democratic atmosphere, enabled Zhang Wentian and other comrades who spoke later to speak freely, and finally made the Zunyi Conference a conference that fully promoted democracy. A key item on the agenda was temporarily added to the meeting, namely, to discuss organizational and personnel changes. Zhou Enlai's clear attitude and views played a pivotal role in the meeting, and finally Comrade Mao Zedong was elected as a member of the Politburo Standing Committee.
After the meeting, Zhou Enlai concentrated his efforts to create the necessary conditions for consolidating the results of the meeting. The reason why the Tashi Conference after the Zunyi Conference was able to successfully complete the "Boluo handover" within the party and form a peaceful handover, Zhou Enlai made a superb struggle and mediation. After the Gouba meeting, Zhou Enlai, as the "person in charge of the final determination", supported Mao Zedong, who was still in the minority in the party, and formed a "central three-person group" through organizational procedures to open the way for Mao Zedong to take command of the Red Army with the empowerment of the party. Before and after the "Four Crossings of Chishui", Zhou Enlai, as the highest leader of the intelligence front, shared all the information with Mao Zedong in time for his decision-making reference.

Source: Xinhua Daily