Ch'iao Kuan-hua: But you, yourself, come here for the seventh time. Everytime the announcement of your visit is "Both sides have agreed..."
Kissinger: But I am only an authoritative level. We don't consider it appropriate for our President to travel without an invitation.
Ch'iao Kuan-hua: But it actually would be an agreement between the two sides where they consulted with each other and agreed upon the following. Of course, we had also thought it possible to say, "The two sides agreed through consultation.
Kissinger: Oh, unanimously! [Laughter] We went through this in July 1971. It is a little bit embarrassing for me to sort of say I make President Ford come to China, which is the implication, and therefore we would like some implication of decision by him. That is why we wanted the word "accepted."
Ch'iao Kuan-hua: Then what about "The two governments agreed" or "the Government of the People's Republic of China and the Government of the United States agreed," to avoid the impression that you were the one who decided the matter. It doesn't stand very logically as it is now: "The two sides agreed" Of course, when the President comes, it will be on invitation. That is normal procedure. This is just an agreement now.
Kissinger: Okay, we will accept it. It doesn't make any difference.
Ch'iao Kuan-hua: What is the meaning of the agreement? It is that the two sides consulted each other. One side made a proposal, the other side accepted it and that is an agreement. In the winter of 1971 - - November - - the announcement issued then was "The Government of the People's Republic of China and the Government of the United States agreed that the visit of President Nixon would begin on the date of February __."
Kissinger: Okay. We will drop the last sentence.
Ch'iao Kuan-hua: Would you want to change "the two sides" to "the two governments?" We don't have any definite opinion on that. If you want to avoid the possible misunderstanding that you just now mentioned, you could use "the two governments."
Kissinger: Okay. Let's say "the two governments agreed." Okay, you got it down to three sentences again. No, four. [Laughter]
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