Secretary Kissinger's Talks in China, November 1974/Teng-Ch'iao-HAK Memcon Nov 25
MEMORANDUM
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
SECRET/NODIS/XGDS
MEMORANDUM OF CONVERSATION
- PARTICIPANTS:
- Teng Hsiao-p'ing, Vice Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China
Ch'iao Kuan-hua, Minister of Foreign Affairs
Amb. Huang Chen, Chief of PRC Liaison Office, Washington
Wang Hai-jung, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs
Lin Ping, Director, Department of American and Oceanic Affairs
T'ang Wen-sheng, Deputy Director, Department of American and Oceanic Affairs
Chang Han-chih, Deputy Director, Department of American and Oceanic Affairs
Tsien Ta-yung, Counselor, PRCLO, Washington
Other Chinese Officials
Dr. Henry A. Kissinger, Secretary of State and Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs
Donald Rumsfeld, Assistant to the President
David and Elizabeth Kissinger
Amb. George Bush, Chief of U. S. Liaison Office, Peking, and Mrs. Bush
John H. Holdridge, Deputy Chief of USLO, and Mrs. Holdridge
Members of U. S. Official Party - DATE AND TIME:
- Monday, November 25, 1974
7:35 - 7:50 p. m. - PLACE:
- Great Hall of the People
Peking
Teng: I welcome the Doctor on his seventh visit to China.
Kissinger: It is always a pleasure to be here.
Teng: This is the second visit we have met.
Kissinger: Yes, April this year was the first time.
Teng: Our Foreign Minister [Ch'iao Kuan-hua] is an old friend.
Kissinger: Yes, we spent a week together -- every night -- when we drafted the Shanghai Communique.
Teng: People are saying in the world that now relations between our two nations are chilling a bit. This is the seventh visit of the Doctor and this can be taken as the third exchange of views between our nations this year. So this opinion circulating in some places cannot be taken as accurate.
Kissinger: I don't believe the opinion is accurate. We speak very frankly and very fully. And I think our relations are proceeding in the direction laid down in the Shanghai Communique.
Teng: I think that is true.
Kissinger: And on our side there is no change at all.
Teng: The same is true on our side. And I don't think the signing of the Shanghai Communique on either side was taken as an expedient move.
Kissinger: No, it was a matter of principle. And our relations are proceeding in the direction foreseen in the Shanghai Communique.
Teng: You must be very tired now.
Kissinger: No, I had a very good night's sleep in Tokyo. And I have recovered from the frost of Vladivostok. [Laughter].
Teng: It must be below zero over there.
Kissinger: It was very cold. Now I know why the Chinese never settled in that territory.
Teng: There have been many Chinese in that area. In the past the inhabitants were mainly Chinese.
Kissinger: Really.
Teng: And our name for that place -- Haishenwei -- is an earlier name than Vladivostok.
Kissinger: What does it mean?
Ms. T'ang: "Haishen" means "sea slug", which you have had. [Laughter].
Kissinger: Yes!
Ms. T'ang: And "wei" means "place" or "ville". "Sea-slug-ville."
Teng: We hear the present name Vladivostok means "Rule the East."
Kissinger: We don't know what it means, but in any case we don't agree with it. [Laughter].
Teng: I don't think it has any other meaning except what it means on face value. But East also includes the part of the Pacific that you are in.
Kissinger: We have always known that any attempt at hegemony in one place can lead to hegemony everywhere, and that is why we reaffirmed what was said in the Shanghai Communique in our communique last year and applied it on a general basis.
Teng: That seems a sentence that the Soviets are most reluctant to repeat.
Kissinger: I haven't read it in Izvestia.
Teng: I think we have reiterated it in the Shanghai Communique with you and also in the Joint Statement with Japan. This [Soviet attitude] seems an established policy that goes back to Tsarist days.
Kissinger: It is a policy of hegemony.
Teng: Yes. And it seems it won't be remedied, at least in the Brezhnev generation.
Kissinger: But it can be resisted.
Teng: Anyway, it will have to be dealt with.
Kissinger: Our views on that question are unchanged. And we will have an opportunity to discuss them at greater length.
Teng: They [the Protocol staff] have to see whether we are ready for pictures to be taken now.
Kissinger: I used to meet your Ambassador [Huang Chen] in Paris long before he came to Washington.
Teng: So he is also an old friend.
Kissinger: So he is also an old friend. When I visited him late at night, he was afraid I might starve to death, so he fed me again. [Laughter].
Teng: In Paris?
Kissinger: In Paris. He has also fed me in Washington.
Amb. Huang: How is the cook in Washington?
Kissinger: Very good.
Teng: In some places, so-called Chinese food doesn't have a Chinese taste. It has become internationalized.
Kissinger: I am told that in America there are many Chinese dishes that no Chinese has ever eaten. [Laughter]. Once in New York I went to a restaurant. They had found out who I was, and they served the menu of the first banquet of President Nixon's visit here. They had it.
Teng: So they have good intelligence.
Kissinger: They do!
[The conversation ended. The party proceeded to the landing on the main staircase for the group photograph, and then began the banquet hosted by the Foreign Minister in the Secretary's honor].