An African king was subjected to a sudden military coup, so why did our ambassador go deep into the rebel camp and go to the meeting? Did he even save the king of this country? What's going on here? Why, a coup d'état in Africa, was directly linked to us? How did the coup d'état in the Horn of Africa end? What role did this legendary diplomatic envoy of our country play as a witness to the upheavals of a foreign country?
First, small African countries have suddenly suffered coups d'état
One day in 1971, the streets of Rabat, the capital of Morocco, suddenly burst into gunfire, a group of fierce soldiers armed with submachine guns surrounded morocco's royal palace, a sharp bullet broke through the window, and the banquet being held in the palace was suddenly chaotic, and the guests fled, and this small African country that was originally calm and quiet fell into a war in just a few hours.
At that time, in the palace, the banquet being held was the king's birthday banquet, but also an important diplomatic occasion for this small country to invite guests from all over the world, such a storm naturally immediately attracted the attention of many people, and in the midst of the chaos, there was a guest who was very calm and calm, in the scattered crowd, he always sat calmly behind a bunker on the side of the hall, and he was Our ambassador to Morocco at that time, Zhang Weilie, in the next few hours. This ambassador from our country is about to go to the meeting alone in the midst of this storm and write a legendary story in the history of our country's diplomacy.
Why, then, did a small African country in the good end suddenly have such a coup? How dangerous is this coup? This also begins with Morocco, a special African country. In the northwest corner of Africa, there is a very inconspicuous country, its name is called Morocco, mention this country, for us, of course, is very unfamiliar, but for those who are familiar with the history of Europe and North Africa, this country is a very different existence, because of the proximity to the Strait of Gibraltar, so this was once an area where the civilizations of the East and the West collided violently, most of the inhabitants of the Arabs who migrated in history, and in modern times have been colonized by France. In modern times, France and Germany have led to two Moroccan crises in order to compete for this place, which almost led to the outbreak of the First World War ten years earlier, and this is also a place where soldiers in North Africa must fight, and there have been many wars here throughout the ages.
For this reason, although after the end of World War II, this place has long been out of the French colonial control, but more or less is not very peaceful, so at that time, the country has become a coup-d'état area, the figure of Western countries often appear in this place, bringing more chaos and instability to here, and at that time, our ambassador Zhang Weilie witnessed this coup, but also the most serious one, the rebels shot, and even beat down the palace that was holding an international banquet. The situation can be said to be very serious.
So, how can such a country establish diplomatic relations with us? In fact, after the end of World War II, France once wanted to continue their colonial expansion, but in Vietnam it first hit a nail, because of our active assistance to Vietnam, so Vietnam later successfully defeated France, and because of this, other French colonies after seeing that France has long been no longer strong, they have chosen independence, Morocco is also during this time, successfully became a normal country.
Morocco is very grateful to us for this reason, and for this reason, only two years after their founding, they rushed to establish diplomatic relations with us, and in the 60s, when our country made a diplomatic visit to ten African countries, Morocco was one of them, and they were also the closest of these African countries to Europe.
Unlike other African countries, Morocco is not a country with a predominantly black population, their population is mainly North African Arabs, and they are located on the choke point, the situation here is more or less not very peaceful, for this reason, the choice of who to be the ambassador has become a very critical thing, after all, in such a special place to be an ambassador, not only in the face of cumbersome foreign affairs, but also with the ability to deal with unexpected events, that is, in this case, Zhang Weilie became Our ambassador to Morocco.
Second, diplomats by military background
The reason why Zhang Weilie was chosen as the ambassador of Morocco, the most important reason is that he is a diplomat with a military background, in 1928, he was thrown into the storms of the great era, he once held a lot of important work in the New Fourth Army, and saw a lot of big scenes of guns and bullets, although he was mainly responsible for civilian work, but he also spent a long time on the battlefield, practicing a good skill, the most important point is that he is a very heavy and calm person. Whenever something big happens, you can make Tarzan collapse in front of you and his face does not change color, because of this reason, he later became a diplomat, and basically undertook some diplomatic tasks to dangerous countries.
Before going to Morocco, he had also visited a special place, that is, Iraq, and in Iraq, he had already seen a coup d'état, that time in 1963, when there was a change of regime in Iraq, and the capital Baghdad was also blocked by local forces.
Although on that occasion he had witnessed such a coup d'état only as a witness, and had not been involved in a domestic incident in a foreign country as he had done in Morocco later, he was also in a very dangerous state, and when the personnel of their embassies were evacuated, they were also interrogated by Iraqi soldiers near the blockade line, although these soldiers who spoke different languages from us were all very vicious, but after seeing the ambassador sitting in the car without changing his face and not being angry, The soldiers who blocked the road immediately chose to give way and let them go, and this incident became the first direct danger encountered by Ambassador Zhang Weilie in his diplomatic career.
Although he sent a mission to some countries that were not very peaceful, but a diplomatic ambassador, to be able to encounter two coups in a row, it is indeed somewhat unlucky, and at that time, he also just entered the diplomatic front not long ago, the first country to go to was Iraq, the result was a few years, Iraq was coupd, the second country to go to is the Morocco we are talking about today, as a result, in 1971, he was reassigned to Morocco as an ambassador, and as a result, Morocco suddenly had a very serious coup These two coincidences did indeed leave a very deep impression on Ambassador Zhang Weilie.
He himself has two important feelings about this, one of which is that the diplomatic front is not a completely peaceful field, but also faces many risks and challenges, needs to deal with work problems very seriously, knows how to pay attention to the environmental changes in the host country, and must not feel that these trifles occur in a foreign country, thinking that they are just a passer-by, and taking it lightly.
On the other hand, he also lamented the importance of peace, believing that living in a peaceful country is really too rare, we should know how to cherish the hard-won peace, to understand that we are not living in an era of absolute peace, but living in a very peaceful country, it is precisely because of the sacrifice of countless heroes in modern times, there is now our hard-won peace, so we should feel cherished.
Although he was sent to Morocco just after leaving Iraq, it is obvious that the difficulty and risk of this work is very large, but Zhang Weilie has no regrets, because he knows that this is an African country closest to Europe, and for us, this is also a very important place, and because the political situation here is unstable, so he must be more careful and cautious to complete the work task.
However, to his surprise, although Morocco is a place of instability, when he first arrived in Morocco, he felt that it was not so dangerous, at least much better than the country where he was the last ambassador, although it was also Arab culture, but the scenery was very beautiful, and the Arab-style buildings made the place full of exotic atmosphere, although he heard a lot of rumors about the undercurrents here, but he did not hear of any major turmoil here.
It was only later that he learned that this was due to the high calibre of the current Moroccan king, named Hassan II, who had been king in 1961 and did not die until 1999, was the most important ruler of the Horn of Africa in the late 20th century, and had a very good relationship with us, and had also given the prime minister an expensive gilded sword, which was the highest level of etiquette for their country to treat foreign guests.
Because he has an undercurrent of the country, so the high-lived king, his life is not peaceful, always on the guard against people who want to rebel against him, because he is an iron-fisted ruler, so many Western forces are eager for him to step down early, but even so, he still lived to a very old age, and has not been overthrown, it can be seen that his personal ability is still very prominent, because of this, although in Morocco, it is often not peaceful, but it is not enough to be chaotic.
In the life of Hassan II, a total of six coups were encountered, and the reason why Hassan II was able to escape many disasters, in addition to his very iron fist, was because he was a very resourceful person, and the coup d'état of 1971, although very serious in nature and dangerous, was actually not the closest Hassan II to death, the most dangerous one was actually in the second year, that is, in 1972, when Hassan II went abroad to run an errand and came back by plane. Suddenly several fighter planes, a machine gun strafing at his plane, fired two shells, although the shell did not hit the plane, but the machine gun bullets penetrated the plane, and suddenly the plane also emitted black smoke, and Hassan II's side of several people were shot, several bullets grazed his body, just at this time, when the thousand guns fired, he suddenly picked up the microphone and shouted: "Don't shoot, Hassan was just killed, we landed, you won", hearing this sentence, the rebels thought they had completed the assassination, The shooting stopped, and Hassan quietly ordered the pilot to force the plane to land on a nearby lawn, and after landing, he urgently contacted the troops he could command, and then foiled another coup against him.
To be able to live so hard not to die, this Hassan II is almost a role that can be compared with Castro, and it is precisely because of this that the coup witnessed by Ambassador Zhang Weilie did not evolve to the point of changing days.
In early July 1971, Ambassador Zhang Weilie received an invitation to come to this birthday banquet of Hassan II, because he was exactly 42 years old on this day, so Hassan II was very happy, and this capital palace was called the Summer Palace, which was used by the Moroccan royal family to escape the summer, although it was hot outside in summer, but this room was very cool, there were more than a thousand guests from all over the world at that time, everyone did not expect that there would be such a storm after that, so when the gunshots sounded, people did not even react, there was a coup, The result is the opening scene.
Third, the Chinese ambassador skillfully solved the crisis
At that time, a dense number of bullets were fired at the crowd, and many people fell in a pool of blood, because most of the diplomats did not understand the military, so many people fled in confusion, including the ambassadors of several countries, who fell in a pool of blood, and a Belgian diplomat sitting next to Ambassador Zhang Weilie was killed by the Moroccan rebels on the spot.
Just when everyone was very confused, Ambassador Zhang Weilie was not flustered, and he also held down the interpreter sitting next to him, quickly chose the safest place to hide, and the Chinese diplomats present also obeyed Ambassador Zhang Weilie's arrangement in time, so there were no casualties on our side.
Because of his calmness, many of the originally panicked crowds were no longer so flustered, and people began to follow his advice and evacuate to the places where there were bunkers in the depths of the palace, and at this time, Ambassador Zhang Weilie became the leader of the envoys of various countries, and everyone was following his instructions to evacuate.
At this time, there was a radio broadcast in the palace, it turned out to be the initiator of the coup, a Moroccan general was speaking, listening to himself, he had controlled the king and achieved the success of the coup, but at this time, in fact, the gunfire in the palace had not stopped, it was obvious that at this time, it was the Moroccan rebels who had the upper hand, and in fact, hassan was indeed controlled.
Just when this was very chaotic, there was another dramatic scene, suddenly the radio was interrupted, and the gunfire everywhere was even more chaotic, and it turned out that at this time, the rebels who launched the coup suddenly shot and killed the general who led them in the coup, and as a result, it was clear that Hassan II was already in the ascendant, but his good luck played a role this time, and the other side actually eliminated his leader.
After this incident, the rebels were dumbfounded, Hassan II's guards could not believe the magical thing in front of them, as the saying goes, the birds are headless, the dragons are leaderless, the insects, the rebels who originally had the upper hand were suddenly dumbfounded, and as a result, they fired a gun for a while, and then stopped, because no one gave orders, so they were all stunned in place, not knowing what to do, in fact, for a small country like Morocco, such a group of rebels was originally a ragtag crowd, This coup is indeed very unprofessional, so once there is such a sudden situation, they are naturally six gods and no masters, and this situation has not only occurred in Morocco, in other countries in North Africa, there have been such funny scenes in the last century, Libya's Gaddafi in the 1960s when the coup d'état, even on the day of the coup d'état, he and his own troops were separated, but it is such a flawed coup, but because the Libyan royal family happened to be drunk that day. Without firing a single shot, a group of people swaggered into the capital and took the palace without bloodshed.
When he saw that the other side did not know what to do, Ambassador Zhang Weilie was not idle, he quickly understood the reason for the matter, so he stepped forward alone, asked for representations with the rebels, and revealed his identity, asked the rebels to lift the blockade of the palace, and let go of the envoys of various countries that had nothing to do with this matter, and he said to these rebels, even if you put your country in such a dangerous situation, and dare to be so rude to visitors from other countries, it is too ignorant.
These rabble-rousers in North Africa had never seen such a courageous person, and when they saw someone appear in front of them without fear and make a request to them, they were stunned on the spot, and they could not believe that such a foreign envoy could be so calm and self-assured under such circumstances, so they were already flustered and did not know what to do.
In the end, although the rebels did not agree to let the people present immediately go, they soon did not dare to be aggressive anymore, and the atmosphere of the entire scene changed after being questioned by a Chinese ambassador, so the rebels also released some diplomats from other countries who had been mistakenly arrested by them.
And at this time, hassan II, who had been imprisoned before, suddenly saw the opportunity, he also suddenly stood up at this time, saying that he had something to say, this group of rebels was originally insufficient, saw the king wanted to speak, so he did not stop, and Hassan II sang a piece of their local religious scriptures at this time, because Morocco has a deep religious culture, at this time, the original deeply imprinted in the hearts of Moroccans For the king's awe was awakened again, many rebels knelt on the spot to beg for forgiveness, And this crisis that occurred in the palace was resolved.
After the matter was over, Ambassador Zhang Weilie was quickly accompanied by the escort sent by Hassan II, and led everyone back to the embassy, and that night, for Morocco, was also a very unstable night, although the crisis of the palace was successfully leveled, but the rebels involved in the coup were actually several rabble, but only one of the leaders attacked the palace, so that night, Hassan II also took a lot of effort to settle his own domestic affairs. This only made this time the storm come to an end, but what surprised Hassan II was the outstanding performance of our ambassador Zhang Weilie at a critical moment, how he did not expect in the past that an ambassador from another country could actually give him such great help at a critical moment, and he was also full of praise for the outstanding courage shown by this Chinese envoy, and such a past event has also become the most impressive memory in his life.
In fact, the courage shown by Ambassador Zhang Weilie is precisely the temperament he should have as a Chinese diplomat shouldering a diplomatic mission, although those who offend China will be punished from afar, but for friendly distant friends, we have always been sincere with each other, and the diplomatic history of our country is also such a humble and unobtrusive history, and it is precisely because of this that many popular diplomatic stories will emerge in such a period of history, and among them, there are many excellent diplomats like Ambassador Zhang Weilie. They have all made extraordinary contributions to China's diplomatic cause, and diplomacy is a window for a country to face the outside world, and today, when China's strength is getting stronger, excellent major country diplomacy has also left a deep impression on the world by our Chinese voice.