Word: chou
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...Chou never bargained to score petty points. I soon found that the best way to deal with him was to present a reasonable position, explain it meticulously, and then stick to it. I sometimes went so far as to let him see the internal studies that supported our conclusions. Chou acted the same...
During our first talk, on July 9, by tacit agreement we did not press controversial issues to the hilt. Taiwan was mentioned only briefly. But at the next day's session the mood was different. With very few preliminaries Chou recited a fierce litany and closed with a challenging question?whether, given our vast differences, there was any sense in a presidential visit...
...responded equally firmly, pointing out that Peking had broached the presidential visit and that we could not accept any conditions. I then launched into a deliberately brusque point-by-point rebuttal of Chou's presentation. Chou stopped me after the first point, saying the duck would get cold if we did not eat first. At lunch the mood changed and Chou's geniality returned...
After lunch I resumed my rebuttal until Chou suddenly, matter-of-factly suggested the summer of 1972 for the President's visit, as if all that was left was to decide the timing. He added that he thought it prudent if we met the Soviet leaders first. I replied that the visits should take place in the order in which they had been arranged?first Peking, then Moscow. I did not have the impression that Chou was unhappy about this...
Even in the millennia of their history the Chinese had never encountered a presidential advance party, especially one disciplined by the monomaniacal obsession of the Nixon White House with public relations. When I warned Chou En-lai that China had survived barbarian invasions before but had never encountered advance men, it was only partly a joke...