Written by Kim Sang-moon
Genre: Biography
Published in May 2009
300 pages

We frequently hear about politicians on the news. It often consists of corruption scandals implicating incumbent politicians. Including bribery cases of members of the National Assembly, there are a lot of corruption cases related to public officials on the Internet, TV, and in newspapers. Although the officials should be honest and upright, there is a lot of bad news about officials. The Gazette would like to recommend one book about a respectable Chinese public official.

When you hear of a Chinese leader, you may think of Mao Zedong. However, many Chinese respect Zhou Enlai. Zhou Enlai always supported Mao Zedong. When revolutionary armies started a revolution, Zhou Enlai wanted to start a revolution based on the urban revolutionary armies, while Mao Zedong wanted to start it based on the rural revolutionary armies. Zhou Enlai was the second leader of his team and Mao Zedong was a lower-ranked person than him in the Chinese Communists. However, Zhou Enlai still respected his opinions. Thanks to Zhou Enlai’s support to Mao Zedong, Chinese Communists won the Civil War. After the Chinese Civil War, Mao Zedong proclaimed the People’s Republic of China on October 1, 1949, and Zhou Enlai was appointed as the first Prime Minister.

Zhou Enlai contributed to the development of China for 27 years as the Prime Minister. He improved China's relationship with the U.S., the main competitor, after the Korean War, through a meeting with President Nixon and established diplomatic relationships with 107 countries, including Japan. He also enhanced China's status by joining the U.N.

Zhou Enlai is respected by many Chinese because of his achievements. However, the main reasons he has been respected are because of his warm heart for the public and his integrity. He never took advantage of his position. He believed that public officials should not live in splendor while the public starved. He never embezzled public funds and did not save a lot of money. He also had no children because he always focused on taking care of his people. His nation and his people were always foremost in his mind.

Nowadays, there are many university students who want to become a public official. To be a great public official, students need to think about the qualifications of an officer and they should be an official who works for the public and nation, and so this book may help them to understand the role. I hope we can hear good news about public officials instead of corruption in the future.