China Watcher: Confessions of a Peking Tom

4. Through the Looking Glass

61 4 Through the Looking Glass My maiden visit to China in 1975 involved a rather long and complex odyssey. It began in April 1971 when, at Mao Zedong’s initiative, Zhou Enlai unexpectedly sent a message to a U.S. table tennis team then on tour in Japan, inviting them to stop over in Beijing for “friendly competition.” The table tennis itself was no contest. Ranked number one in the world, the Chinese players toyed with their twenty-eighth-ranked U.S. counterparts, deliberately (and conspicuously) throwing a few matches in order to avoid humiliating their guests. But an important connection was nonetheless established, and the initial round of Ping-Pong Diplomacy was followed in July 1971 by Henry Kissinger’s secret trip to Beijing, setting the stage for Richard Nixon’s “week that changed the world.” The Shanghai Communiqué, signed by Nixon and Zhou on February 28, 1972, cleared the way for the gradual growth of informal relations of trade, technology transfer, and scientific and cultural exchange. Shortly after the Nixon visit, the members of a Chinese ping-pong team became the first PRC citizens to venture onto American soil. The two countries set up unofficial diplomatic missions, known as liaison offices, and U.S. companies began scurrying to get a foot in the door of the new, untapped China market. Boeing Aircraft quickly cemented a deal to sell ten of its state-of-the-art 707 passenger jets to China’s Civil Aviation Administration , while a consortium from the Pullman-Kellogg companies consummated a deal to set up a string of chemical fertilizer plants in China. A U.S. college all-star basketball team toured China in 1973, handily routing all opposition and thereby avenging the defeat suffered earlier by the U.S. 62 through the looking glass ping-pong team. American scientific delegations also began to visit China in growing numbers, representing such fields as seismology, solid-state physics, paleoanthropology, and medical and life sciences. Within China, Zhou Enlai’s opening to the United States proved highly contentious. Lin Biao and Jiang Qing strongly opposed “sleeping with the enemy.” Although Lin’s sudden death in September 1971 cleared a path for Zhou’s diplomatic breakthrough, soon afterward Jiang Qing began pseudonymously publishing her accusations of betrayal and treason by the “Duke of Zhou.” One early indication of leftist obstruction of the normalization process occurred in January 1972, when Jiang Qing and her Shanghai cronies attempted to sabotage the visit of an advance team of U.S. government officials, led by Deputy National Security Adviser Alexander Haig, who had been sent to China to prepare for Nixon’s arrival. As members of Haig’s team arrived at the famously scenic West Lake district of Hangzhou , to assess its suitability as a presidential sightseeing venue, a boat ride was arranged for them. Normally, tour boats used to entertain visiting dignitaries in China are well heated and lavishly stocked with food and drink. On this occasion, however—a bitterly cold, blustery day—the boat was unheated and there was no food or drink aboard. A Chinese interpreter assigned to escort the Americans, Zhang Hanzhi, was astonished by the lack of amenities, and she hastily put through a phone call to Premier Zhou’s office in Beijing. Zhou, in turn, contacted Chairman Mao, who reportedly expressed indignation over the discourtesy shown to the American guests. Since in China nothing is left to chance when it comes to relations with foreign countries, and in particular important foreign visitors, it was simply inconceivable that such a diplomatic slight could have occurred accidentally. Someone high up had sent a clear signal of defiance—a conclusion later confirmed by Zhang Hanzhi, the interpreter, who revealed that the order for a bare-bones boat ride for the Americans had come directly from the Shanghai Revolutionary Committee, the Gang of Four’s operational headquarters. Signs of left-wing defiance became even stronger as the political infighting in China heated up in 1974–75. By that time, with Mao’s blessing , cultural exchanges between China and the United States were a regular occurrence. In addition to ping-pong and basketball teams, the United States had sent a variety of delegations, including a symphony orchestra, university presidents, secondary educators, world affairs specialists, and through the looking glass 63 swimming and diving teams; China had reciprocated with acrobats, martial arts specialists, and ping-pong and basketball teams...