In 1954, it seemed that 'People's China' was about to rejoin the world. The Geneva Accords on Indochina, which ended France's colonial wars in South-East Asia and partitioned Vietnam, had been a personal triumph for the Chinese premier, Zhou Enlai. Urbane, amusing and fluent in their languages, Zhou charmed foreign diplomats and journalists off their feet. Perhaps, they began to hope, the grim isolation and hostility displayed by Mao's regime since the Korean War were about to end.

LRB 19 May 2011 | PDF Download