Shadow Diplomacy

Abstract

Abstract Zhou Enlai recruited Communist Party cadres to conduct foreign affairs work even before the PRC was founded. Knowing that it needed international legitimacy to survive, the Party put together a small coterie of foreign affairs specialists in its post–Long March revolutionary base of Yan’an. Many of the practices and cultures laid down by this group continue to shape Chinese foreign policy today—including hospitality techniques designed to win over foreign visitors. This chapter tells the story of the group, with a focus on a recruit named Huang Hua, who would later go on to become foreign minister.