The Day That Changed the World - A Conversation with Wang Hairen About Mao Zedong's Foreign Affairs

Author: Kong Dongmei
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-08-01
Features: She is the only female among Mao Zedong's four grandchildren, with her grandmother being He Zizhen and her mother being Li Min. She helps us authentically recreate a series of behind-the-scenes stories of New China's diplomacy, allowing us to see Mao Zedong orchestrating foreign affairs from behind the scenes. This is Kong Dongmei. "Authentically recreate history, interview as many living witnesses as possible, describe those red years objectively from a modern perspective, and let more nostalgia linger in our hearts." This must be the best interpretation of this female writer's writing purpose!
III. A Nixon Article
Nixon Sends a Signal In October 1967, Grandpa read an article titled "Asia After the Vietnam War" by Nixon, published in the fourth issue of the U.S. Foreign Affairs Quarterly in October 1967. At that time, the United States was one of China's two top adversaries—one called the "American Imperialists" (imperialism) and the other the "Soviet Revisionists" (revisionism). In the article, Nixon expressed his disappointment that America's years of isolating China had not yielded results, thereby proposing the idea of dialogue with China. This might have been his earliest signal of intentionally changing the U.S.'s current policy toward China, and it was quickly received by China on the other side of the globe.
On December 12, 1974, Premier Zhou met with Mansfield, the Democratic leader of the U.S. Senate, in the hospital. The Premier said to the guest, "Now, let me tell you about our side of the matter. The decision to improve U.S.-China relations was made by Chairman Mao. He read an article written by Nixon before he was elected in 1968 very early on. At that time, none of us had read it, but only Chairman Mao paid attention to it. He told us about it, and only then did we read it. Dr. Kissinger spoke the truth. He said that it was still Nixon who made the decision to open the door. Dr. Kissinger did not expect this, and at the time, he even had the opposite idea. He only followed later. Of course, this is not meant to belittle Dr. Kissinger's contributions to restoring and developing U.S.-China relations. He did have a role to play."
Grandpa believed that if Nixon came to power, the United States might change its policy toward China. The Premier also instructed the foreign affairs department to begin observing and studying the U.S.'s strategic trends. U.S.-China relations thus became a major issue for the leaders of New China to consider once again.