Today's story begins with this old historical photo below.
I believe that many Chinese are already very familiar with this classic photo:
50 years ago, the new Chinese delegation returned to the scene of the United Nations General Assembly.
On the left, Qiao Guanhua, then head of the delegation and Vice Foreign Minister of China, laughed, and on the right was Huang Hua, the newly appointed Permanent Representative of China to the United Nations.
However, the young woman with short round face and short hair wearing glasses in the back is difficult for anyone to recognize.
Although her name was very famous in the 1970s.
The young woman, Tang Wensheng, was 28 years old and was the chief English translator of the Chinese delegation.
The head female interpreter of the delegation sitting in the back row
50 years later, the first member of the Chinese delegation to return to the United Nations, many of whom have passed away, Tang Wensheng, as the youngest member of the delegation, recalls the scene at that time.
Now let's cut back to 50 years ago, with Tang Wensheng's gaze, to see the little-known details and insiders of new China's return to the United Nations.
Resolution 2758 was adopted on the 26th instead of the 25th in Beijing
This year marks the 50th anniversary of New China's restoration of its legitimate seat in the United Nations.
When many media report on the adoption of Unconstitution 2758, they write the time as October 25, Beijing time.
In fact, on October 25, 50 years ago, when Resolution 2758 was displayed on the big screen of the United Nations General Assembly, "The resolution was adopted", it should be around 11 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST) on the 25th.
Because the United Nations is in New York, it is exactly in the Western Fifth District time, which is 12 hours later than Beijing time.
That is to say, when the representatives of African countries were cheering for the return of New China to the United Nations, our country was exactly around 12 o'clock in the afternoon on October 26.
Six days after the adoption of resolution 2758, a five-star red flag was raised outside the United Nations Building
Kissinger advised China at beijing airport to "wait another year," but was punched in the face
Coincidentally, at Beijing's Xiyuan airport, the Chinese side was bidding farewell to US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who was visiting China for the second time.
At that time, the Chinese side came forward as Marshal Ye Jianying. In the car at the airport, Kissinger suddenly took the initiative to mention the return of New China to the United Nations: "You may have to wait a year." ”
Kissinger told Ye Jianying that China would have to wait another year to return to the United Nations
Later analysis of Kissinger said this because the information given to him by the US State Department at that time was:
The United States and its allies should be able to veto Resolution 2758 (also known as the "two-Arab proposal" because it was led by Algeria and Albania) proposed by several Asian and African countries.
It turns out that the judgment of the US State Department has completely overturned.
When Kissinger's plane finally left and the Chinese personnel were preparing to leave, suddenly a staff member ran out of the airport VIP hall and urgently reported to the Chinese leader who was sending him off:
"Chief, just after the Foreign Ministry called, China's resolution to restore its legitimate seat in the United Nations was passed."
Mistakenly used the paparazzi reporter who chased the photo as a spy
After the formation of the new Chinese delegation back to the United Nations, how to reach New York, the seat of the United Nations, was quite difficult.
Because there were no direct flights between China and the United States at that time, only transfers from Europe.
At that time, the only route to Europe was Air France's Shanghai-Paris route opened in 1966, so the delegation traveled from Beijing to Shanghai, from Hongqiao Airport, and flew over Myanmar, Pakistan and Egypt.
Here's a small detail when the plane needed to stop in Athens.
Greece, as an ally of the United States, did not establish diplomatic relations with New China, and the delegation was still a little wary at that time, and as a result, the Greek Foreign Ministry was very enthusiastic and sent people to greet them.
The Chinese delegation arrived in Paris by Air France plane
After arriving in Paris, France, the delegation took a bus to the Chinese Embassy in France, but encountered an unexpected scene:
On the airport highway leading to the city of Paris, many cars suddenly appeared on both sides of the bus, and many cameras and camera lenses protruded from them, taking a sharp shot at the Chinese delegation on the bus.
Some cars even open the skylight, and the people inside stick out the lens directly from the skylight.
The first time the delegation encountered this situation, it initially thought it was a hostile element, and even suspected that it was a spy or something,
Later, it was found that it was reporters from major French media who got the news that the "Red Chinese Delegation arrived in Paris" and came to grab first-hand news.
The handsome chef of the delegation was put on the front page of the newspaper by the reporter as the head of the group
An interesting thing happened during this time.
When the members of the delegation were preparing to leave the next day, the embassy staff brought the French newspaper of the day, only to find that the page was printed with a photo of a young man of the delegation, and the headline next to it read: "The head of the red Chinese delegation is entering Paris!" ”
As a result, the members of the delegation all laughed loudly, and it turned out that this young man was the chef of the delegation, because he was tall and mighty, wore a black trench coat, and looked very temperamental, which made the French reporter mistakenly think that he was the head of the delegation.
The deep impression left on the delegation by European and American journalists is far from over.
After boarding a direct flight to New York, the head of the delegation, Qiao Guanhua, had just sat down in first class and had not yet closed his eyes to prepare for rest.
Suddenly several white men appeared in first class, one with a microphone in his hand and two others carrying cameras and other equipment.
"Hello, I'm a CBS reporter and hope to be able to cover the Chinese delegation."
In order to prevent opponents from preemptively reporting, CBS simply bought reporters a plane ticket for the same plane as the Chinese delegation and directly conducted exclusive interviews at a height of 10,000 meters.
Chinese Americans welcome the Chinese delegation back to the United Nations at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport
The first to shake hands with the delegation was the future President of the United States
The Chinese delegation first entered the venue of the United Nations General Assembly on the morning of November 15, 1971.
Major MEDIA in the United States competed for first-hand coverage of New China's return to the United Nations
What is unexpected is that the first person to meet and shake hands was not the representative of the friendly countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, nor the United Nations staff, but an American who was very familiar to the Chinese people after that.
At that time, qiao Guanhua, the head of the delegation, had just stepped out of the elevator when he met a tall American diplomat and took the initiative to reach out to Qiao Guanhua to greet him.
"Hello, I'm George Bush, Permanent Representative of the United States to the United Nations, and welcome to the United Nations!"
Qiao Guanhua politely shook hands with Bush, a scene that was also captured by reporters present and became a symbol of the beginning of the thaw in Sino-US relations.
Qiao Guanhua met with Bush
Three years later, Bush became one of the first permanent diplomats stationed in China, serving as director of the U.S. Liaison Office in Beijing.
Eighteen years later, the first American at the United Nations to shake hands with a Chinese diplomat became the 41st president of the United States.
Representatives spoke directly from the poems of the great men
The UN General Assembly on the morning of 15 November actually consisted of only one discussion of disarmament resolutions, and what remained was a special speech prepared by the UN side for the return of the new China.
The meeting ran from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and 55 representatives of the state had already spoken, but there was still a steady stream of national representatives who had applied to speak.
Owing to the large number of representatives of the countries that had asked for the floor, the President of the General Assembly, the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Indonesia, Adam Malik, announced that the statements made by all representatives of all countries would be included in the form of a printout of the minutes of the meeting.
From this statement, we can also see the degree of closeness between different countries and New China:
The representative of Hungary made a welcome speech at the scene with Chinese.
In his statement, the representative of Chile directly quoted the poems of the great Chinese men.
The representatives of the United States, the Soviet Union, and Israel were silent after the Chinese delegation spoke, and did not even give a polite applause.
The Chinese delegation is at the venue of the United Nations General Assembly
Most Asian and African countries expressed a warm welcome to the arrival of New China and shook hands with the members of the Chinese delegation, so that everyone could truly feel the scene of "brotherhood in all corners of the world".
50 years on, no matter how the international situation changes, China has always been on the international stage as it said when it returned to the United Nations 50 years ago:
"China is a responsible big country!"