He is also a successful politician

He had been fighting Mao in his way, and at last he won. Even Gao Wen Qian's understanding of Zhou is wrong, Zhou had been fighting, he did it in such a clever way that Mao could not eliminate him. In fact, once Mao died, Mao's political family was defeated, instead it is Zhou's and his ally Deng's family won. Zhou foresaw this, Mao foresaw this. Both of them know when Mao was alive, Zhou (and Liu and Deng) could not win, once Mao was dead, Zhou/Liu/Deng could not lose. Mao must have felt so miserable, even the fireworks during 1976 Spring Festival could not make him happy.