Zhou Enlai
1
7.7
- proper noun
- That year, at the Geneva Conference, Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai approached U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles with an outstretched hand in a public gesture of friendship.
Examples
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In 1959, Chinese Prime Minister Zhou Enlai suggested that the borders of India were not legitimate because they were drawn by foreign imperialists.
Academic text (1997) -
As he disembarked from his plane, President Nixon made a point of approaching Zhou Enlai on the airport tarmac with his hand outstretched.
Academic text (1997) -
The deaths of Zhou Enlai in 1976 and of Hu Yaobang in 1989 triggered mass protests in the streets of Beijing and other major cities, as ordinary Chinese took the occasion to press for political reform.
Academic text (1997) -
But the more important reason is that Deng, unlike either Zhou Enlai or Hu Yaobang, did not die as a martyr at his post, fighting for political reform against radicals on the left or conservatives on the right.
Academic text (1997) -
In 1972, U.S. President Nixon met with Zhou Enlai to discuss diplomatic relations between the two countries.
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Zhou Enlai was instrumental in shaping China's foreign policy during his tenure as Premier.
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After Zhou Enlai's passing in 1976, many Chinese mourned the loss of their beloved leader.
Synonyms
2
9.1
A Chinese political leader who served as China's premier from 1949 to 1976
1
8.8
Chinese political leader who was prime minister of China from 1949 to 1976
Surface Forms
Morphology
Zhou + Enlai
This is a personal name composed of two proper-name elements; knowing the constituent tokens 'Zhou' and 'Enlai' does not allow a learner to infer the biographical meaning (Chinese revolutionary leader, premier). Proper names are arbitrary and require encyclopedic or cultural knowledge rather than compositional lexical knowledge, so a B1 learner would not derive the MWE meaning from its parts.
Etymology
Zhou Enlai was a Chinese leader who became the country's first Premier and was known as a calm, skillful diplomat. He often acted like a bridge between China and other countries by helping important talks and visits, so his name today often stands for 'Chinese diplomacy' and efforts to work with other nations.