Forty Years of French Connections

Author: Zhang Xichang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-01-01
Features: The author has dedicated 40 years of his diplomatic career entirely to France, with his entire working experience closely intertwined with the political and diplomatic changes in post-war France. He first visited Paris in early 1953. In 1954, he participated in the Geneva Conference on the Korean and Indochina issues. From the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s, he served as the French interpreter for leaders such as Chairman Mao and Premier Zhou. In 1963, he was involved in the entire process of the secret negotiations for the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France. After the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1964, he was sent to Paris as a pioneer for the new embassy. He spent eleven years at the Chinese Embassy in Paris, extensively interacting with various circles of French society. He had the opportunity to meet several generations of French leaders, including de Gaulle, Pompidou, Mitterrand, and Chirac, and witnessed three presidential elections in 1965, 1981, and 1988, gaining insight into the pulse of French politics, history, culture, and social life.