Zhou Enlai, born on this day in 1898, was a communist revolutionary, statesman, and military officer who served as the 1st Premier of the People’s Republic of China from 1949 to 1976. “All diplomacy is a continuation of war by other means.”

Zhou was educated in a missionary college in Tianjin before studying at a Japanese university. In Tianjin, he met his future wife, Deng Yingchao while participating in a radical political group known as the “Awakening Society”. In 1920, Zhou moved to France, where he helped form the overseas branch of the Communist Party of China. He also lived in Britain and Germany before returning to China in 1924.

While working in the Political Department of the Whampoa Military Academy, Zhou was also made the secretary of the Communist Party of Guangdong-Guangxi, and served as the CPC representative with the rank of major-general.

After the Chinese Civil War broke out in 1927, Zhou served in the communist forces, helping establish and oversee a network of underground cells of communist resistance. Zhou played a leading role in the Long March of 1934-35, an arduous military retreat of communist forces over 8,000 miles.

Following the Zunyi Conference in 1935, Mao Zedong became Zhou’s assistant. After the conclusion of the Long March, Mao officially took over Zhou Enlai’s leading position in the CPC, while Zhou took a secondary position as vice-chairman. Both would hold their leadership positions until their deaths in 1976.

Zhou was a prominent participant in the 1955 Asian–African Conference, held in Indonesia. The conference produced a declaration in strongly in favor of peace, the abolition of nuclear arms, general arms reduction, and the principle of universal representation at the United Nations. Zhou was critical of American imperial aggression and stated “the population of Asia will never forget that the first atom bomb was exploded on Asian soil.”

Zhou passed away from bladder cancer on January 8th, 1976, just nine months before Mao Zedong’s death in September that year.

“Today the first unification of the Chinese people has emerged. The people themselves have become the masters of Chinese soil, and the rule of the reactionaries in China has been irrevocably overthrown.”

Zhou Enlai, from “Chinese People Will not Tolerate Aggression” (October 1950)

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  • WhatDoYouMeanPodcast [comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    2·
    4 days ago

    I guess I never really engaged with it too much. The sith ideology is fascist? That stuff about “there is no peace, only passion and passion is… le freedom!” mantra is ideologically defunct? Can you speak on that more, please?

    • Carl [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
      13·
      4 days ago

      My interpretation of the Sith Code is that it’s an extreme endpoint of individualism. It makes sense in a duality kind of way, because the Jedi are supposed to be about surrendering their ego and desires to serve The Force, so the Sith are the exact opposite of that, embracing their ego and desires to a self destructive extreme.

      Yuthura gives it the best run down in the series. A lot of what she says is basically just social darwinism with an added mystical element, and she argues that getting pissed is good, that victory is pointless unless everyone gets a good look at how big your force hog is, and that being an asshole and ignoring society’s rules is true freedom.

      In KOTOR it makes sense in context why people would embrace such an ideology, because the galaxy was in crisis and the Jedi weren’t doing anything. Kinda like if a neoliberal government isn’t meaningfully fixing the problems its causing and people start turning to fascism, the parallels are strong in this interpretation of the Sith. For Yuthura, a big motivator for her to join the Sith is the Jedi’s inaction on galactic slavery - and something that helps turn her away from them later is realizing that the Sith also aren’t doing anything about slavery.

      While KOTOR 1 focused on developing the Sith ideology, KOTOR 2 was more interested in the Sith’s relationship to the Jedi, ultimately concluding that they were two sides of the same coin. After all, pretty much every Sith was a Jedi first. If you’re running with the liberal/capitalist -> fascist analogy then it fits really well that the Sith are what the Jedi become when they take the mask off, the only thing that’s missing is the class analysis because the Sith are self destructive in a general way rather than arising from a need for The Republic to crush socialist movements.

      • Le_Wokisme [they/them, undecided]@hexbear.netEnglish
        3·
        4 days ago

        After all, pretty much every Sith was a Jedi first. If you’re running with the liberal/capitalist -> fascist analogy then it fits really well that the Sith are what the Jedi become when they take the mask off, the only thing that’s missing is the class analysis because the Sith are self destructive in a general way rather than arising from a need for The Republic to crush socialist movements.

        that’s undermined a bit by the jedi having a monopoly on interplanetary force education. there were some other factions but they were never major players and usually in hiding on single planets. Idk how many stories there are about sith recruiting from those instead of protagonist jedi meeting them, or if any pre-mouse comics got into how jedi became the ascendant faction.

    • TommyCatkins [none/use any]@hexbear.netEnglish
      4·
      4 days ago

      The core belief of the Sith is using the force to further your own power and destroy your enemies. They don’t have any ideology or beliefs beyond might makes right.