Forty Years of French Connections: A Diplomat's View of the World

Author: Zhang Xichang
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Publishing Time: Not available
Features: The author has dedicated 40 years of his diplomatic career to France, with his entire career closely intertwined with the political and diplomatic changes in post-war France. He first visited Paris in early 1953 and participated in the Geneva Conference on the Korean and Indochina issues in 1954. 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 secret negotiations for the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France. After the establishment of diplomatic ties in 1964, he was sent to Paris as part of the advance team for the new embassy. He spent eleven years at the Chinese Embassy in Paris, where he had extensive contact with various sectors 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.