Huai'an born Zhou Enlai was contemporary China's greatest statesman, spymaster and negotiator - the one Henry Kissinger could not out-negotiate. The Peoples Republic of China would not exist today without Zhou's skill as communicator and administrator. Yet Zhou had one fatal flaw which cost him his adopted children, his colleagues and the career of Xi Zhongxun - father of President Xi Jinping.
While Zhou left Huai'an, another group came to his birthplace to serve through medicine, education and evangelism. China's revolutionaries gained power; the missionaries - influence. Influence transcended power, and contrasted power politics vs. quiet service.
This book can also be read backwards - through the index, which organizes over 100 footnotes and historical details. For example, President Xi Jinxing's father, despite rescuing survivors of the Long March, was three decades later unfairly associated with the Gao Gang affair and denounced by the people he rescued. Another side story is the role of former missionary retreat, Kuling on Lu Shan. On Lu Shan George C. Marshall negotiated with Jiang Kaishek and Zhou Enlai. At a Lu Shan conference during the Great Leap Forward, Mao Zedong joked about being overweight and called his second son crazy.