Zhou Enlai became a fugitive from the Kuomintang regime when Chiang Kai Shek broke with the communists. The Long March veteran became Mao Zedong's premier and foreign minister after the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949. He headed the Chinese Communist delegation to the Geneva Conference of 1954 before relinquishing the foreign ministry, while retaining the premiership. Zhou maintained his position through all of Communist China's ideological upheavals, including the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, although he was was periodically targeted by Red Guards for attempting to shelter its victims. He died in 1976.