Cambridge Storybooks 3 The Chinese New Year

The population as a whole remained rigidly quarantined from the few foreigners allowed into China, who were subject to rigorous control. Any unauthorized conversation with them could bring catastrophe to the locals involved. The lengths to which the regime would go were extraordinary. For NixonБЂ™s one-day visit to Shanghai, which coincided with Chinese New Year, the traditional occasion for family reunions (like Christmas), thousands of rusticated youths who were visiting their families were expelled back to their villages of exile, as a precaution against the extremely remote possibility of any of them trying to complain to the president. The real beneficiaries of NixonБЂ™s visit were Mao himself, and his regime. For his own electoral ends, Nixon de-demonized Mao for mainstream opinion in the West. Briefing White House staff on his return, Nixon spoke of the БЂњdedicationБЂ«of MaoБЂ™s cynical coterie, whom Kissinger called БЂњa group of monks БЂ¦ who have БЂ¦ kept their revolutionary purity.БЂ«NixonБЂ™s men asserted, falsely, that БЂњunder Mao the lives of the Chinese masses have been greatly improved.БЂ«NixonБЂ™s favorite evangelist, Billy Graham, lauded MaoБЂ™s virtues to British businessmen ...»