Mao: Trudeau's Hero Whom He Visited Secretly

Trudeau goes to China

"When the sleeping dragon awakes," Napoleon once said of China, "he will shake the world." In the 20th century, multiple upheavals shook the Asian giant. The rule of emperors gave way to civil war and the Communist revolution, closing China to the world. The doors slowly opened in the 1970s with new diplomatic ties and economic reforms. The crackdown on democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square in 1989 barely checked China's growth, and today the world's most populous nation is on its way to superpower status. CBC Archives presents China as CBC journalists have seen it over the decades.

Pierre Trudeau has been to China twice before, but the third time it's as prime minister. Canada and China have recently established diplomatic ties, and Trudeau is hoping to secure access to the Chinese market for Canadian business. On a 1973 tour that includes such highlights as the Great Wall and martial-arts displays, Trudeau gets a last-minute invitation: a visit with Chairman Mao. This CBC-TV clip includes a segment about the meeting from Chinese TV.