"Trusted by Both Sides"

[Randy W]

from the SCMP

 

Ji Chaozhu, Chinese diplomat who acted as bridge with US during historic thaw in relations, dies aged 91

• Zhou Enlai protégé played ‘indispensable’ role in historic meetings between Chinese premier, Mao Zedong, Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger
• Harvard-educated diplomat was later sent to Washington to help normalise relations and won the trust of senior leaders on both sides

 

Ji appeared in the famous photograph of Zhou Enlai shaking hands with Richard Nixon. Photo: Getty Images

 

Ji was born into an elite family in northern province of Shanxi in 1929 and fled with his family to the US in 1937 during the Sino-Japanese War. He spent most of the next 12 years in New York, which he called “his other home”, learning perfect English and immersing himself in American culture.

 

But his American life came to a sudden stop in 1950 when China entered the Korean war fighting against the US-led forces. The sophomore student studying chemistry at Harvard University decided to return to China dreaming of becoming a scientist developing nuclear bombs for his native country.

 

The decision, according to Ji in his 2008 memoir tilted The Man on Mao’s Right, was influenced by his elder brother Ji Chaoding, a US-trained economist, an early member of the Communist Party and long-time associate of Zhou Enlai. Instead, he became a note taker for the Chinese delegation attending the armistice talks in Geneva at the end of the war in 1954 and then enrolled in the foreign ministry to become Zhou’s main interpreter for the next two decades.

 

As an aide and protégé of Zhou, who “sometimes referred to me affectionately as his ‘foreign doll’,” Ji was privileged to witness many history-making moments, including the so-called ping-pong diplomacy of 1971, when contact between table tennis players helped start the thaw in relations between the Cold War adversaries. He was also present during Mao’s last official engagement – a meeting with Pakistani prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in May 1976, months before his death. Ji also appeared in many historical photos, including a famous shot of Nixon shaking hands with Zhou on the tarmac at Beijing’s airport in 1972.

 

According to Ji and declassified US intelligence, when Nixon met Zhou on February 22, 1972, in a departure from diplomatic protocols the US president did not bring his own interpreter but agreed instead to rely on Ji.