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Mao Offered US 10M Chinese Women

He joked to Kissinger in 1973 that his nation had way too many

By Wesley Oliver,  Newser Staff

Posted Feb 13, 2008 9:54 PM CST
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(Newser) – China’s Mao Zedong once jokingly offered the US 10 million women from his poor, overpopulated country to kickstart bilateral trade, the BBC reports. Other talks covered the Soviet threat, but during one chummy meeting with Henry Kissinger in Beijing in 1973, Mao said China’s female influx produced too many children, telling Nixon’s national security adviser, “Let them go to your place.”

Mao quickly warned that Chinese women would “create disasters” in the US, but Kissinger responded in kind that there were no quotas or tariffs on women. Mao, who made the jokes a recurring theme, concluded the meeting by calling his remarks “nonsense” and "begged the pardon" of Chinese women, Bloomberg says. The US released the transcripts over the objections of a Chinese official, who predicted they would inspire public anger.

Mao Zedong once offered the US as many as 10 million women from his poor, overpopulated country to kickstart trade between the two countries, the BBC reports. (Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)
Mao Zedong once offered the US as many as 10 million women from his poor, overpopulated country to kickstart trade between the two countries, the BBC reports. (Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)   (Getty Images)
The US state department has released documents from 1973, in which former Chinese leader Mao Zedong offers former national security adviser Henry Kissinger as many as 10 million women from his poor, overpopulated country to kickstart trade between the two countries, the BBC reports. Kissinger responded jokingly by saying there...
The US state department has released documents from 1973, in which former Chinese leader Mao Zedong offers former national security adviser Henry Kissinger as many as 10 million women from his poor, overpopulated...   (Associated Press)
China's former leader, Mao Zedong, once offered the US as many as 10 million women from his poor, overpopulated country to kickstart trade between the two countries, the BBC reports. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
China's former leader, Mao Zedong, once offered the US as many as 10 million women from his poor, overpopulated country to kickstart trade between the two countries, the BBC reports. (AP Photo/Ng Han...   (Associated Press)
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Kissinger tried to steer conversation toward Soviet threat
AFP

 
China • Soviet Union • Henry Kissinger • Chinese women • Mao Zedong • bilateral trade

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