“I may be able to go and see Marx soon,” was said to be a joke that Mao Zedong (1893-1976) often told his guests in his later years.

And he indeed did tell it when he received a visiting Japanese Communist Party (JCP) delegation in Shanghai in 1966, as chronicled by a delegation member, Tetsuzo Fuwa, who was 36 at the time.

But the meeting’s genial atmosphere turned abruptly icy when the JCP rejected China’s proposal for a joint communique, due mainly to differences in their respective Soviet policies.

Mao told the JCP delegation to the effect, “We have nothing more to........

© The Asahi Shimbun