"THE PRINCIPAL GUEST WAS MISSING"

In 1971, Mao Tse-Tung Tse-Tung was already an old man. Although he issued an invitation to the U.S. President, Richard Nixon, he exhibited historical insight for his large country. With the forgivable sign of an aging man, every morning he asked his secretaries how many days until Nixon arrives? On a day when he discovered that Nixon had already arrived, he jumped up and down, demanded his secretaries and his staff to bring the U.S. President to his formidable presence. There was no double that in Mao Tse Tung's long and colorful life in February, 1972,
Richard Nixon was his principal guest.

The week in Beijing in 1972 was eventful and the American delegation mixed openly and fully with the Chinese leaders. Chou En-Lai spent most of his time with President Nixon and his National Security Advisor, Henry Kissinger. There were dinners and banquets every night. It was the time to form what became the Shanghai Communiqué, which Mao Tse-Tung fully endorsed.

One would have thought that Mao Tse-Tung gave his blessing for China becoming a Chinese version of a capitalistic country, and in any case probably during that time, Mao Tse-Tung decided to become a Republican. Mao Tse-Tung never visited America but in the year 2006 when Premier Hu Jintao came to the United States, Henry Kissinger in his opening speech at the dinner in Washington did say that Hu is the forth generation of Chinese leaders, a leader who comes here to the United States thirty-five years after the initial visit, representing a nation which is the largest importer of steel and oil and has a trillion-dollar U.S. government debt which it purchased for its own bread and butter, export and hard work.

The meeting took place without a dinner at the White House. The American leadership complained, complained about North Korea, Iran, the budget deficit, currency rates of the Chinese currency, to which the Chinese answered, as a leader should answer in the 21st century. In 1972, the world kept 90 percent of its Central Bank reserves in dollars. Today it is only 60 percent. In 1972, the Chinese had no business with the United States, no commerce. In 2006, there was a $200 billion trade deficit in their favor.

Premier Hu had the answer as an American self-made man. "You buy $200 billion extra merchandise from us. Why don't you sell $200 billion extra merchandise to us? We'd cooperate. We buy $16 billion Boeing aircraft. We buy Microsoft. And you can sell us any high-tech equipment you want."

It seemed that Mr. Hu was the American self-made man and the Americans were the complaining aristocrats from Virginia or Massachusetts. "You want to balance the trade? Why don't you go and buy some of our banks and financial institutions? Why don't you sell American stocks in Shanghai or Hong Kong?" In thirty-five years the Chinese seemed to have gone through more capitalistic education than the United States in two hundred years.

The Americans complain about Iran and North Korea. The Chinese answer was, What about diplomacy? Surely in 1972, America wanted to end the war in Vietnam. In 2006, we just started with Iraq and Afghanistan. Mr. Hu repeated the use of diplomacy. China doesn't want to get into a war with anybody, and frankly they said they don't advise anybody else to do so.

It was not stated but understood that the Chinese liked the U.S. President's visit in 1972. They liked America's desire to solve the world's problems with diplomacy. While Boeing was number one on Mr. Hu's shopping list, it was for commercial purposes. If we use our money, our energy in wars, we won't have the money to buy commercial aircraft from Seattle. Mr. Hu spent less than a day in the White House. There was no particular photograph with Vice President Cheney or Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld. He has, however, had a picture taken with Bill Gates of Microsoft and the boys at Boeing, and he was particularly happy to go to Yale University and made his longest speech in Washington, D.C. in a private dinner where the surviving party of the Shanghai committee, Dr. Henry Kissinger, spoke of the joint progress the two nations have made.

With so many issues outstanding, and so few diplomatic language and solutions given to the press, one wonders the different paths China and the U.S. have taken since 1972. In 1972, America had the task of channelling China to a capitalist path. The American President had succeeded. Among others, China today purchased one trillion dollars worth of U.S. dollars and converted it into an untold amount of gold. In 1972, there were no cars in China. Today they have ten million cars and they intend to go to 15 million by the year 2010. In 2020, Mr. Hu said, China's economy will double, which was already up 10 percent in the last quarter. For that they need peace and negotiation and diplomacy. The American President who visited China in 1972 had the same sentiments when it came to politics and world events.

Dr. Kissinger's speech and presence has stood for America's pride and values.

However, we have to admit that in 2006 the Principal Guest was missing.

(Article 26- posted April 25, 2006)

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