Do you know how good Premier Zhou is?
In 1972, when Nixon came to China to visit China, when Premier Zhou personally picked up, when the two just met, the unique temperament of Premier Zhou made Nixon remember it vividly, and afterwards Nixon commented on Premier Zhou: During his visit to China, Zhou Enlai's unparalleled character made one of the most profound impressions on me.
Indeed, Premier Zhou is such an excellent person, I think that the world did not recognize the image of China at the beginning, in their impression, China is still the same as the weak and incompetent Qing government at the beginning, for this newly established country is holding a joke mentality, weak countries have no diplomacy, and in their hearts China is that weak country, but Premier Zhou, who was the minister of foreign affairs at that time, completely changed the world's view of China and changed the situation in which New China was isolated.
Nixon once said to Premier Zhou when he came to Visit China: The number of atomic bombs in our United States can destroy the earth more than a dozen times, and then he seemed to stare closely at Premier Zhou with a playful look, perhaps in his heart he still expected to see a hint of panic in Premier Zhou's face, a hint of embarrassment, but there was none, but on the contrary, Premier Zhou's response to such a provocation of his was only an understatement and made him dumbfounded, and I have to say that Premier Zhou's wise thinking is unparalleled. So what kind of words did Premier Zhou say that would subtly alleviate the situation?
At the beginning of the founding of New China, the country was in ruins waiting to be revived, China's economy wanted to grow rapidly, in addition to focusing on all aspects of domestic production, diplomacy was also an indispensable part, premier Zhou, who was also the minister of foreign affairs at that time, carried such a big heavy responsibility on his shoulders, but the Western countries at that time were not optimistic about us China, and at the same time, the Western capitalist countries led by the United States had lost in our hands, so there was a lot of reluctance in their hearts, in order to prevent the rise of China, they implemented independence from China politically and blockaded China economically. Under such tense international relations, Premier Zhou single-handedly broke the deadlock and completely changed China's isolation.
The Geneva Conference was held in 1954, this was the first time that China participated in this meeting as a five-power country, and at the scene of the meeting, countless pairs of eyes were staring at us closely, on the one hand, they wanted to see what kind of strength this newly established China really had, and on the other hand, they also had bad intentions for this newly established China, of course, before attending this meeting, we also knew what this meeting meant to China, and at the same time, many people wanted to see Chinese jokes, so the mainland sent Premier Zhou, Zhang Tiantian Wang Jiaxiang and Li Kenong and others attended the meeting, and such a domineering lineup was to show them what Chinese style is.
At that time, before the meeting began, the prime minister met a reporter from the United States, this reporter pretended to look very admiring when he first met Premier Zhou, and said that he wanted to shake hands with the prime minister, of course, the prime minister, a person with atmospheric demeanor, did not reject him, and also held out his hand to show respect for him, at first people thought that this was a simple mutual greeting handshake, but people underestimated the American reporter, and even more did not expect that his heart was so ugly, after shaking hands with the prime minister, The American reporter took out the face of everyone in the handkerchief to wipe the hand that had just been shook with the prime minister, and while wiping it, he said in disgust that he was too reckless, and even shook hands with people in a warlike country, he was too confused, and the foreigners around him all hid their faces and smiled when they saw it, in their opinion, in the face of such humiliation, almost everyone would be intolerable and extremely difficult to fight back, and they really wanted to see how the premier responded to this situation, whether it was anger or silence, of course, neither. Only to see Premier Zhou unhurriedly take out a handkerchief from his pocket, others saw this scene and even laughed out loud, in their opinion, maybe the prime minister will also make the same move as the American reporter, if so, they will think that the prime minister's strength is the same as ordinary people, but the next prime minister's move makes them disappointed, the prime minister took out a handkerchief to wipe his hand, did not hurry to the side of the garbage can, and then under the eyes of everyone directly threw the handkerchief into the garbage can, and then shook his head and sighed, Turning to the American reporter and saying: Your handkerchief can still be washed, but mine can no longer be washed, this move can be said to give the American reporter and those who want to see the joke a good lesson, and the American reporter turned around and walked away after the reaction, and then saw the eyes of the crowd only admiration.
After this incident came out, many people understood that although new China had just been founded, it was not an object that could be kneaded at will, and at the same time, some reporters had a competitive mentality, and they also wanted to interview our Premier Zhou to see if it was really as wise as legend.
Later, an American journalist was fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to interview Premier Zhou alone, who thought he was very strong and was very eager to make Premier Zhou embarrassed when facing his questions, but then Premier Zhou's answer made him feel humiliated. At that time, when interviewing Premier Zhou, he suddenly found that there was an American Parker pen on Premier Zhou's desk, so he saw it and asked triumphantly: Honorable Premier Zhou, why is the pen you Chinese made in the United States? When he asked this question, he actually wanted to satirize China, but Premier Zhou looked at him and smiled and replied: This pen has a story, it was given to me by a friend of my volunteer army, when he first captured an American general on the battlefield of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, this pen was the spoils of war at that time, I did not accept this gift at that time, but later my friend said that it was captured in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, which has a special significance, so I accepted this gift as a souvenir, after hearing this The American reporter could only smile awkwardly and did not have the good sense to continue the interview.
Later, another Western reporter asked Premier Zhou: How much money does the Bank of China have now? After hearing this, Premier Zhou smiled and returned: The funds of the Bank of China now have eighteen yuan and eight corners and eight cents, and at that time people did not understand what this meant after listening to it, and then Premier Zhou unveiled the doubts for them: The currency currently issued by China has ten yuan and five yuan and two yuan and one yuan, five corners and two corners, five points and one cent, a total of ten kinds, and they add up to exactly eighteen yuan and eight corners, and Premier Zhou's humorous and witty answer made everyone laugh.
Later, the reporters all wanted to explore the strength of the premier, so they tried to find difficult problems, and then on another occasion, Premier Zhou received many American reporters at the meeting, and one of them asked: China's roads are obviously taken by people, but why is it called a road? The staff present at that time were slightly angry when they heard this question, because this question undoubtedly regarded our Chinese as a horse, which was a great insult to the Chinese, and if this question was explained according to common sense, it would certainly make them see the joke, but at this time, Premier Zhou did not have any emotional change at all, but calmly took the microphone and said a sentence that made everyone present admire, because we China is taking the Marxist road. So the road in China is called the road. The answer to this sentence is good, it is good that there is nothing wrong with it, and then the reporter asked: We Americans walk with our heads on our heads, why do Chinese walk with our heads down? Premier Zhou then returned: This is very understandable, because you Americans are walking downhill, so you must look up, while we in China are different, we are all walking uphill, so we just bowed our heads, this time the American reporter was beaten in the face again.
On February 1, 1972, the president of the United States came to Nixon to visit China, which is the manifestation of the friendly establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the United States, thinking that Nixon had heard that Premier Zhou had a set of foreign diplomatic relations before the future of China, so he also wanted to see this legendary figure with his own eyes, when Nixon suddenly said a sentence when talking to Premier Zhou: Our US nuclear bomb can destroy the earth more than a dozen times, and he said this sentence undoubtedly wants to use his own nuclear weapons to give China a downfall. However, Premier Zhou did not show a panic after listening to this, but smiled at the people around him and said: Then we China will not be able to do it, we are still relatively backward, and the nuclear weapons that China possesses can only destroy the earth once. This sentence instantly alleviated the embarrassment at the same time, but also forced Nixon to be speechless, indeed, you have more nuclear weapons, but the earth is only one, the earth destroyed once and destroyed ten times are the same reason.
If you think that China did not build an atomic bomb, you can provoke, and now China is an equal position with you, if you think of any threat, then China will never show weakness.
After many battles, the world knows the wisdom of Premier Zhou, and the leaders of various countries show great respect when they later face Premier Zhou.
The brilliant stories left by Premier Zhou in the history of diplomacy are well-known in China and have had a far-reaching impact on the mainland's later diplomatic career. And we will always remember premier Zhou's exploits and the preciousness he left us.