PEKING: President Nixon summoned Chinese leaders to “a Long March towards peace”, in an exchange of toasts with Premier Chou En-lai at a state banquet in his honour here tonight [Feb 21]. The President was responding to a toast in which Mr Chou welcomed his visit as a chance to seek normalisation of relations and peaceful coexistence.

In a flattering reference to the Long March – the most famous heroic episode of the Chinese Communist Revolution — President Nixon said: “Let us in these next five days start a long march together not in one step but on different roads leading to the goal of building a world structure of peace and justice in which all may stand together with equal dignity and in which each nation large or small has a right to determine its own form of government, free of outside interference or domination.” The proceedings were broadcast live around the world from the Great Hall of the People.

Mr Chou earlier said the visit “provides the leaders of the two countries with an opportunity to seek the normalisation of relations between the two countries, and also to exchange views on questions of concern to the two sides. “This is ... an event unprecedented in the history of relations between China and the United States,” he said.

Published in Dawn, February 22nd, 2022