Zhang Hanzhi

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Zhang Hanzhi (1935 - 26 January 2008) was a Chinese diplomat who was Mao Zedong's English tutor and U.S. President Richard Nixon's interpreter during his historic 1972 trip to China.

Born in Shanghai in 1935, Zhang was the illegitimate daughter of a shop assistant and the son of a prominent family. She was adopted by Zhang Shizhao. Her family moved to Beijing in 1949 and four years later, Zhang entered the Beijing Foreign Studies University, where she taught after graduating with a master's degree.

She meet Mao in 1950 and then started to translate English for him. The lessons abruptly stopped in 1964 as the Cultural Revolution began taking shape. Zhang and her family and friends were persecuted although she said Mao provided protection at various times. In 1971, Zhang was transferred to China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where she began her diplomatic career and attended a series of landmark meetings, including the ones with Nixon, when the countries began restoring diplomatic relations.

She scandalized officials when she divorced her husband and married Qiao Guanhua, the head of the U.N. delegation, who was 22 years older than her. He died 10 years later.

On the 26 January she was reported dead. The cause of death was released as a lung-related illness. [1]

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