On February 21, 1972, when he learned of the arrival of "President" Nixon of the United States, Chairman Mao made a special exception and held talks with him that afternoon, but no one expected that just when the two were talking happily, the United States had an unpleasant little episode.
At that time, there was a strange "clanging-" sound at the scene of the conversation, and Nixon and Chairman Mao saw this, immediately stopped talking, and shifted their eyes to the source of the sound, only to see that the American staff member had been tinkering with something in his pocket, and after seeing the actions of the American personnel, Nixon was even more blue and embarrassed. So, what exactly is in the pocket of the US staff? And why is there a strange noise?
Since the 1960s, China's relations with the Soviet Union have been deteriorating, in order to break the diplomatic isolation, China began to seek opportunities to normalize Sino-US relations, during this period, China and the United States have repeatedly tried to communicate, with the joint efforts of both sides, finally in 1971 achieved a major breakthrough in the visit of US "President" Nixon to China.
In order to welcome the arrival of Nixon, China deliberately prepared the "industrial exhibition" in advance, and determined Shanghai as the place to hold the industrial exhibition, the reason why the government did this is because Shanghai's economic development level ranks in the forefront of Chinese cities, the government intends to use Shanghai as a "shop window" to the outside world, showing the best appearance of Chinese cities to foreign guests.
The central government attaches great importance to this work, in order to implement this project, in addition to industrial products such as cars, the central government has also put medical and health projects into it, and let Hu Jinhua, director of the Shanghai Municipal Health Education Institute, take full responsibility.
After Receiving the task, Hu Jinhua immediately decided to add four items, namely synthetic insulin, acupuncture anesthesia, severed hand replantation, and large-scale burns, because China's four medical projects were in the leading position in the world at that time.
In order to make medical projects not be compared with a variety of industrial products, Hu Jinhua told everyone: "We must use our brains." ”
When designing the exhibition plan, Hu Jinhua is well aware of the obscurity of medical projects, in order to make the public understand at a glance, he requires the use of the least amount of text to express, the people of the Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, after listening to Hu Jinhua's request, the insulin is presented in a molecular model three-dimensional, and with a lamp, so that the boring medical display project, also becomes very artistic, in addition to the model display, medical projects are also presented in various forms such as movies, making this exhibition more colorful.
After the construction of the exhibition was completed, the central government also formed an advance group to let the members of the group follow the process of visiting China, according to Hu Jinhua's recollection, that day, he stood in the exhibition hall early and waited, and after a while, THE US National Security Affairs Assistant Haig and Han Xu, director of the Protocol Department of the Foreign Ministry of Foreign Affairs, walked in.
After entering, Hu Jinhua followed them, and Hague listened to our personnel and inspected the surrounding environment to determine whether it was safe. After the visit, Haig shook hands with Han Su, who said that he would convey the sincerity of the Chinese side to the "president" and expressed deep expectations for the next trip to China.
In addition to China's preparations for this "visit to China," the United States is also making preparations for its "visit to China."
In February 1972, Nixon embarked on a trip to China aboard the "Air Force One", and her wife, Pat, also specially chose a bright red coat.
Pat replied: "On such occasions, most people wear black, gray and brown, which feel less conspicuous than red, and red also has a good meaning in China, which can convey a warm and friendly feeling to China." ”
In addition, Nixon made special preparations on the plane, according to the accompanying reporter Bernard. As Calb put it: "Nixon was already practicing shaking hands repeatedly when he got on the plane. ”
On this plane, Nixon had a separate private space with a floor-to-ceiling mirror, and during the flight, he repeatedly practiced the handshake in front of the mirror, because before, he rarely needed to shake hands with people, so he was still slightly unfamiliar with the handshake.
In this way, Nixon stood in front of the mirror, practicing against the air over and over again, and once he found that the gesture of shaking hands was not good, he would stop there and re-correct his posture.
At 11:30 a.m. Beijing time on February 21, when the plane was about to land, Nixon walked to the door of the plane, he kept thinking about the etiquette of shaking hands, and at the moment when the door of the plane was opened, he smiled kindly, stepped on the special plane gangway arm in arm with his wife Pat, and waved hello to Chinese cadres and reporters.
When he reached the last few gangways, Nixon took the lead in walking down, he took the initiative to extend his right hand to Premier Zhou, who came to greet him, and then, the hands of the two were tightly clenched, and this scene was also filmed by the media reporters at the scene, becoming a historical witness of Sino-US friendship.
In the afternoon of the same day, Nixon came to Zhongnanhai to hold talks with Chairman Mao, and as soon as the two met, they shook hands cordially, and Chairman Mao said: "Welcome to visit China." ”
After a few words of greeting each other, the two sat down one after another, and Mao Zedong said to him humorously: "People say that you are rightist, the Republican Party is right-leaning, and I voted for you in the US election." ”
After hearing this, Nixon instantly understood what Mao Zedong meant, which was an allusion to appreciating his new policy toward China, and he said: "The election in the United States was produced in speeches, and at present, the left can only talk about it, but the right can fulfill its promises with practical actions." ”
Mao Zedong laughed after listening to it, and then the two kept saying some light-hearted questions, so that the atmosphere of the talks instantly became relaxed and harmonious, and just when Mao Zedong was ready to cut to the right topic, there was a strange noise on the field, "Zi Zi La La" like a kind of electric current sound.
For a moment, the venue was instantly quiet, the Staff accompanying China and the United States looked at each other, speculating about who it was, and after a while, the noise became louder, only to see a US personnel panic and put their hands in the pockets of their clothes, trying to turn off the sound, but fiddling for a while, but still could not make the sound stop.
At this time, everyone has already set their eyes on him, and the US personnel have to helplessly take something out of their pockets after seeing themselves exposed, which is a miniature tape recorder, and the US personnel originally wanted to secretly record the meeting, but they did not expect to "steal chicken and not corrupt rice."
He awkwardly dropped the recording and, under the gaze of everyone, placed it on the table next to him, at this time, Nixon's face was ugly, and the behavior of the American personnel undoubtedly embarrassed him, and he turned his eyes to Mao Zedong and smiled apologetically at him.
In addition to Nixon's attention to Mao Zedong's attitude, the Chinese staff was also extremely concerned, because Mao Zedong had always been very disgusted by others stealing recordings, not to mention that on such an important occasion as the Sino-US talks, just when everyone thought that Mao Zedong would not be easy, Mao Zedong did not happen.
He said to Nixon, "Today, our topic is philosophy, so let's go on." ”
After hearing Mao Zedong's words, Nixon gradually breathed a sigh of relief in his heart, and deeply admired Mao Zedong's broad-mindedness regardless of previous suspicions, and then he continued to talk with Mao Zedong, talking and talking, Nixon pulled the topic to Vietnam and Taiwan, Mao Zedong answered a few questions, and immediately stopped: "I am not interested in these topics." ”
After saying this, Mao Zedong pointed to Zhou Enlai next to him: "This is the question you should talk to him about, let's continue to talk about philosophy." ”
After nixon saw that Mao Zedong was not interested in answering, he shifted the topic to "emptying the cannon", which means that the words spoken did not achieve the goal, but only empty words, Mao Zedong became interested when he heard this topic, he said: "When I released the empty cannon, it was nothing more than to overthrow imperialism, reactionaries in various countries, and so on. ”
Nixon listened, pointed to himself, and said humorously, "It is probably people like me who have been brought down." ”
Mao Zedong laughed again after hearing this, and he shook his head and said, "Personally, you may not be among the top of the list, but if we all knock down, we will have no friends." ”
When the translator passed the words to Nixon, Nixon was stunned, he did not expect Mao Zedong to defuse the crisis in one word, and called him a friend, Nixon could not help but feel very emotional, deeply impressed by the level of Mao Zedong's speech.
After the talks, Nixon held many talks with Zhou Enlai on the Sino-US issue, and in his free time after the talks, China also specially arranged a tour itinerary for Nixon.
At that time, china sent a local guide to take Nixon to tour the Forbidden City, Badaling Great Wall, Summer Palace and other ancient architectural attractions, Nixon when he saw these majestic buildings, exclaimed: "Chinese history, really broad and profound!" ”
After the tour in Beijing, Nixon, accompanied by Chinese staff, came to Shanghai on February 27 to participate in the industrial exhibition, accompanied by Nixon and several American reporters who reported.
After entering the exhibition hall, Nixon pointed to a few words on chairman Mao's portrait in front of the venue and asked, "What is written on it?" ”
The staff member translated: "Summoning up all the energy, striving to go upstream, how quickly and efficiently to build socialism!" ”
Nixon could not think about the meaning of this sentence, he followed the Chinese docent to the exhibition area, when he saw the rows of brand new luxury cars, Nixon was a little surprised, because before coming to China, he always thought that China was still a poor and backward country, did not expect that China's industrial level has developed so well.
Subsequently, Nixon and his party came to the exhibition area of small and medium-sized tractors, and the Chinese interpreter explained that since the founding of New China, the great Chairman Mao said a sentence "Women can stand up to half the sky", under the influence of Chairman Mao, women have participated in labor production, among them, the state has also trained a batch of female tractor drivers...
After visiting the industrial exhibits, Nixon came to the medical project exhibition area, and when he saw the three-dimensional model of the insulin molecule, he could not help but marvel, comparing the molecular model to a handicraft, and then the research experts talked and introduced everything in plain language.
After the visit, nixon took another look at the hall when he left, and when he saw again the big words "summon up all the energy, strive to go upstream, and build socialism as quickly and efficiently as possible," he suddenly understood the meaning of this sentence: China's success is not achieved overnight, but comes from the hard work accumulated by hundreds of millions of people.
The next day, Shanghai issued the "Sino-US Joint Communiqué," in which the US side stated that "only one China" is that the People's Republic of China is the only legitimate Chinese government.
In 1976, Nixon received China's "visit to China" invitation again, he recalled the beauty of his visit to China four years ago, and he couldn't help but feel nostalgic and yearning for China, so he chose to come to The Land of China again, although he was no longer "President" at this time, but our country still received him with the specifications of "President", which made Nixon moved.
Chinese people will never forget Nixon, and it is precisely because of the "visit to China" in 1972 that the relations between China and the United States will break the ice and move toward normalization, and this also laid a good foundation for the subsequent establishment of Sino-US diplomatic relations.
Since the publication of the "Sino-US Communiqué on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations" in December 1978 and stipulating that it will take effect on January 1 of the following year, China and the United States have formally established diplomatic relations, and the relations between the two countries have once again risen to a new height, and all this is inseparable from the efforts made by Chairman Mao and Nixon.