In August 2008, former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger came to Beijing with his wife, Nancy, son David, grandson Samuel, and granddaughter Sophie.
As early as 3 months ago, Kissinger wrote to say that he would bring his family to Beijing to see the Olympics and visit Huang Hua. The letter also stressed that he wanted to see how Huang Lao had come to be very dashing in these 70 years of revolutionary and diplomatic activities!
At this time, Huang Hua had been admitted to the ward of Beijing Hospital, and he was already 95 years old.
In order to welcome this special guest, Huang Hua got up early and made preparations: he temporarily unplugged the oxygen tube, took off his hospital gown, changed into a snow-white shirt, straight pants and a purple-red Tang suit, neatly packed up, and sat down on the sofa.
Huang Hua told his wife, He Liliang, to make himself more energetic, like a formal diplomat, to meet his old friend.
After the two elderly people met, their topic began with the Olympics and talked about kissinger's secret visit to China 37 years ago, when they first met.
In 2006, Huang Hua and Dr. Kissinger
In 1970, Snow's visit played a catalytic role in improving Sino-US relations, and changes were brewing between China and the United States.
At that time, the United States was deeply involved in the war of aggression against Vietnam and was passive in the struggle for hegemony with the Soviet Union. Relations between China and the Soviet Union deteriorated, and the Soviet Union repeatedly made provocative actions on the border.
After studying the four marshals Chen Yi, Xu Xiangqian, Nie Rongzhen, and Ye Jianying, they held that in the triangular relationship between China, the United States, and the Soviet Union, the contradictions between China and the Soviet Union are greater than the contradictions between China and the United States, and the contradictions between the United States and the Soviet Union are greater than the contradictions between China and the Soviet Union.
They suggested resuming Sino-US peace talks and striving to break the stalemate in Sino-US relations.
In the United States, Nixon was elected president, and he believed that there was not much that could be done in domestic affairs and was ready to play a big role in foreign policy. A few days after taking office, Nixon instructed National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger to encourage improved relations with the Chinese Communists.
Both sides were interested in improving, and soon resumed the Sino-US ambassadorial talks, which had been interrupted for more than two years.
In April 1971, the American table tennis team was invited to visit China. Subsequently, after several special messengers from China and the United States, Kissinger decided to visit in secret on July 9.
Kissinger's visit to China was conducted under a high degree of secrecy.
The US side is not very confident about this visit, and they use the code name of "Operation Polo" as their code name.
On June 30, White House spokesman Ziegler announced at a news conference that President Nixon would send Dr. Kissinger on a ten-day visit to South Vietnam, Thailand, India, and Pakistan.
By the time Kissinger arrived at his last stop in Pakistan, there were only 3 journalists following him, compared to the high-profile visit at the beginning.
When Kissinger attended the banquet prepared for him by the president of Pakistan, he suddenly held his abdomen in his hands and cried out in pain. He acted out a play, using cultivation as an excuse, but secretly took a plane to China.
As early as a few months ago, after receiving the news that Kissinger was going to visit, the Chinese side had already begun preparations and decided to set up a central foreign affairs group composed of Premier Zhou, Marshal Ye Jianying and Huang Hua.
By this time, Huang Hua had already been appointed Ambassador of Canada. Zhou Enlai asked him to postpone his appointment.
One evening, after the meeting to study the Sino-US talks, Premier Zhou and Huang Hua went to report to Chairman Mao, and when they said that Dr. Kissinger would disappear in the mountains of Pakistan, Chairman Mao said: "Comrade Huang Hua, you are also missing!" ”
In this way, Huang Hua locked himself up in Building No. 4 of the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse for more than a month, immersed in preparing for Kissinger's visit to China.
On July 9, Kissinger and his party stayed at Building 5 of the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse.
In the next three days, the negotiating team represented by Premier Zhou held six talks with the US side, and some of the specific issues were discussed by Huang Hua and Kissinger. On July 16, the two sides issued the "Announcement", which caused a shock to the world.
At this meeting, it was decided to establish a secret channel of communication at the highest level of the two sides, the Paris Channel, and more importantly, to confirm that Nixon would be invited to visit China.
After Kissinger left, Huang Hua went to Ottawa, Canada, as Canada's first ambassador.
Three months later, a message came that the Chinese nation was cheering, and the 26th session of the United Nations General Assembly finally restored the legitimate seat of the People's Republic of China in the United Nations after fierce debate.
Chairman Mao was very happy to learn of this, and he personally ordered the generals to form a Chinese delegation with Qiao Guanhua as the head of the delegation, Huang Hua as deputy head of the delegation, Xiong Xianghui and seven other people as the main and deputy representatives to attend the Twenty-sixth Session of the United Nations General Assembly.
After the mission completed its mission, Huang Hua remained in New York as the first permanent representative of China to the United Nations and the Security Council.
In fact, the personnel stationed abroad at that time often risked their lives, especially at this time, China and the United States did not establish diplomatic relations, or hostile countries, and the activities of Kuomintang agents in the United States were very rampant.
There was once an unfortunate incident in which Wang Xichang, a waiter at the Permanent Mission to New York, was killed at the Roosevelt Hotel.
After investigation, Wang Xichang's room contained a highly toxic solution of nicotine in the thermos, and the Chinese side suspected that it was an assassination plot carried out by Chiang Kai-shek's agents, because one of the US guards on duty at the delegation that night was a yellow person, and after the incident, he never saw this person again.
Everyone has also raised their vigilance and made many regulations on security work, such as the need for three of our personnel to leave the hotel. In order to prevent eavesdropping, the delegation stipulated that confidentiality should not be discussed in the hotel, and that all confidential matters should be written in pen, circulated, and destroyed immediately after reading.
The United States also has a lot of rules for us Chinese diplomats in the United States, such as not allowing them to operate 20 miles away from Columbia Square, and if they want to go, they must report to the U.S. State Department for approval in advance.
"Once our table tennis team visited the United States, and the game happened to be 20 miles away, so we had to apply specifically to watch the game." He Liliang recalled that the United States treated China as a hostile country at that time, "We always had a car parked in front of our door, as long as we went out, we would follow, sometimes we went to the suburbs on Sundays to see the scenery, and their cars stopped 20 steps away." ”
In New York, social activities are busy. More than a hundred permanent missions hold their own National Day receptions every year, and when their heads of State or government dignitaries come to New York, they hold receptions, and there are constant banquets among delegations.
The main diplomats of the mission therefore attend even four or five events a day, which is the best opportunity to present, disseminate and understand the situation of the country. Although tired, Huang Hua will always take advantage of these opportunities.
At the same time, Huang Hua also paid great attention to contacts with friendly people in the United States and Chinese people in the United States, and paid great attention to contacts with Chinese officials and staff of the secretariat. Huang Hua often met with Dr. Li Zhengdao, Yang Zhenning, Wu Jianxiong and other doctors, and also gathered with Helen Snow, John Hsieh Weisi, the delegation's lawyer Martin Popa and others.
When China was elected a member of the Special Committee in January 1972, my delegation found that Hong Kong and Macau had been included in the list of so-called colonies since 1961. According to the purpose of this special committee, the future prospect of the colonies is to gain independence.
Huang Hua raised representations on this issue, pointing out that this is China's internal affair and that the United Nations has no right to talk about this issue, and has carried out a series of work.
As a result of his efforts, on June 15, the United Nations decided to delete Hong Kong and Macau from the list.
Since then, Hong Kong and Macao have been stripped of their colonial hats for the first time in the world. This means that the only future for Hong Kong and Macao can only be to return to the embrace of the motherland, which also removes an obstacle to the negotiations on Hong Kong's return in the future.
In 1972, Nixon visited China to publish the Shanghai Communiqué, and since Huang Hua was stationed in New York (Permanent Representative to the United Nations), Kissinger proposed the establishment of another secret channel of communication between China and the United States, parallel to the Paris channel, the New York channel.
In 1972 and 1973, Huang Hua and Kissinger met in New York in a number of secret meetings, all at the appointed time in an apartment on 43rd Street in Manhattan, New York.
They will exchange information on some international relations issues. Huang Hua also raised China's strong protest against the United States on the US plane invading Guangxi, dropping bombs, firing missiles, and sinking Chinese fishing boats in Vietnam.
Kissinger reported directly to Nixon and the White House, while Huang Hua reported to China in a top-secret form.
Such a meeting is a special form of diplomatic exchange between China and the United States without formal diplomatic relations. It has avoided the media, avoided outside interference, and solved some practical problems, which has enabled some progress in sino-US bilateral relations.
In December 1976, Huang Hua, who was in New York, received an order from the central government to return to China.
On December 12, Huang Hua, who had just stepped off the plane, was told that the central government had decided to make him foreign minister. In this way, he became the fifth foreign minister of the new China.
During his tenure as foreign minister, China and the United States established diplomatic relations and signed a Sino-Japanese treaty of peace and friendship.
Huang Hua began in 1936 as an interpreter to the American journalist Snow and went to the Soviet Union in northern Shaanxi; to 1944, he received the US military observation group in Yan'an, engaged in diplomatic work for the first time; after the founding of the People's Republic of China, he was transferred to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; until 1954, he accompanied Zhou Enlai to the Geneva Conference and the Bandung Conference (1955), serving as an adviser and spokesman for the Chinese delegation; by 1960, he became the first Chinese ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to Ghana; and then to the ambassador to Canada, the permanent representative to the United Nations and its Security Council, and the foreign minister. Until 1983, he was elected vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress.
Huang Hua was involved in many landmark events in the history of New China's diplomacy, and Kissinger called him "one of the most capable servants of the people I have ever met." He was Zhou Enlai's right and left arm, and his wife sighed even more: "This man, his whole life has been spent on diplomacy." ”
In the complicated diplomatic struggle, Huang Hua fought against the storm; he treated foreign friends kindly and amiably, and forged good relations; he struggled unceasingly for the diplomatic cause of New China and devoted his life's energy.
Many people may not know that the old man's original name is Wang Rumei, Huang Hua is his pen name, he engaged in revolutionary work in order not to involve his family, has been using "pseudonym", the result of a lifetime, children and grandchildren also followed all the surname "Huang".
On November 24, 2010, in late autumn in Beijing, this trans-century old man slept quietly, looking peaceful and tranquil, and his life that he had struggled for 98 years quietly came to an end.