On this Day in Chinese History; 11 September

This day, 11 September, in 1973, French President, Georges Pompidou, visited China, becoming the first sitting head of state from a Western European country to do so. Met at the airport personally by Premier Zhou Enlai, and Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping, he would later go on to say to Mao Zedong, “In any case, Europe wants to be independent, and Asia also wants to be independent…”