Huang Hua, the Chinese diplomat who helped spearhead talks that lead to President Nixon’s historic visit to Beijing died Wednesday. He was 97.
Huang served as Ambassador to Egypt and Canada, and following the re-establishment of ties with the United States, represented China at the United Nations and then as his country’s Foreign Minister.
Designated by Time Magazine as Mao’s “America Watcher,” the Oxford educated statesman had an uncanny command of the English language and had the advantage of having early contact with Americans, serving as military liaison to the U.S. mission in Yenan in 1944.
In 1978, Huang followed the example set by RN, and brought China’s new diplomatic approach to Japan, signing a friendship accord with its East-Asian neighbor after a violent war nearly forty-years earlier.