The Question Of Warbetween Chinaand The U.S. Doesn'T Exist At Present

Date: 1972-02-21
Source: en:FLP-Diplomacy
THE QUESTION OF WAR BETWEEN CHINA AND
THE U.S. DOESN'T EXIST AT PRESENT*
(February 21, 1972)
Aggression on the part of the U.S. or aggression on the part of China is
a relatively small question, not a big one, because the question of war between
our two countries doesn't exist at present. You want to withdraw some of your
troops to the U.S., and we won't send any troops abroad. It seems rather
strange to both of us that we have always failed to approach each other for
the past 22 years. Our present contacts, if counted from the time of playing
table tennis together, have lasted fewer than ten months, or if counted from
your suggestion put forward in Warsaw, more than two years. We admit to
bureaucracy in our work when we flatly refused your proposals to exchange
people's visits and do some small business. We, including myself, have insisted
for ten years that we do not negotiate with you on minor questions pending the
settlement of major ones. Later we found that you were correct, so we promised
to play table tennis with you.
We became acquainted with each other through the introduction of the
ex-president of Pakistan. Our ambassador to Pakistan then was firmly opposed
to establishing contact with you, saying we must make a comparison as to who
was actually better: ex-President Johnson of the Democratic Party or you,
Richard Nixon. Our side didn't much appreciate President Johnson. From
Truman to Johnson we weren't happy about them all. In between them a
President from the Republican Party was in power for eight years, but at that
time you also weren't convinced.
(From the verbatim record)
These are excerpts from Mao Zedong's talk with U.S. President Richard Nixon.