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 the four grandchildren of Mao Zedong. Her grandmother is He Zizhen, and her mother is 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 strategizing behind the scenes in foreign affairs. 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! This book tells the story of Mao Zedong's cousin's daughter, Wang Hairong, the first female deputy foreign minister of China, who speaks for the first time about Mao Zedong's extraordinary charm and recounts a series of behind-the-scenes stories of Chinese diplomacy that changed the world 30 years ago. The book reveals many secrets behind diplomatic "great moves," from Mao Zedong's conversations with Edgar Snow to the secret welcome of Henry Kissinger, China's return to the United Nations, Nixon's visit to China, and the signing of the Shanghai Communique, providing a wealth of precious materials and detailed information for the history of Chinese diplomacy.
III. A Nixon Article
Nixon Sends a Signal
In October 1967, my grandfather 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 enemies—one called the "American imperialists" (imperialism), and the other the "Soviet revisionists" (revisionism). In the article, Nixon expressed his disappointment that U.S. years of isolating China had not worked, thus proposing the idea of dialogue with China. This may have been his earliest signal of intentionally changing the U.S. 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, I will tell you about our side of the matter. The decision to improve Sino-U.S. relations was made by Chairman Mao. He read an article by Nixon before he was elected in 1968. At that time, neither of us had read it, but only Chairman Mao paid attention to it. He told us about it, and then 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 that time, he even had the opposite idea. He only followed suit later. Of course, this is not to belittle Dr. Kissinger's contributions to restoring and developing Sino-U.S. relations. He did have a role to play."
My grandfather believed that if Nixon came to power, the United States might change its policy toward China. Premier Zhou also instructed the foreign affairs department to begin observing and studying the U.S. strategic trends. Sino-U.S. relations thus became a major issue for the leaders of New China to consider again.