Yesterday, I wrote about a memoir from a staff member at the Chinese Liaison Office in the U.S. in 1973. Some fascinating details from that time offer a glimpse into the challenges they faced.
After purchasing the Windsor Park Hotel, the Liaison Office moved in at the end of 1973. Their first task was to transform the hotel into a functioning office. The Chinese government dispatched a small construction team of about 10 people, with only five skilled workers. Given the scale of the renovation, they were drastically understaffed. Lacking funds to hire local labor, they had no choice but to do the work themselves.
A Chinese saying, "艰苦奋斗，自力更生" (Jiānkǔ fèndòu, zìlì gēngshēng) means "enduring hardship and striving, relying on oneself for survival." In this spirit of enduring hardship, independence and frugality, the Liaison Office decided to mobilize all staff to help. Diplomats and employees alike threw themselves in the manual labor, renovating the lobby, entrance hall, banquet room, and several reception areas. This involved demolishing walls, raising ceilings, and polishing terrazzo floors—all done largely by staff members, including Director Huang Zhen. The female staff, led by Huang's wife, took charge of wallpapering, painting doors and windows, and sewing curtains for the entire building.
The backyard was an overgrown, uneven lot. Over weekends, the staff cleared weeds, leveled the ground, and transformed most of it into a parking lot and sports field, with a small portion turned into a vegetable garden. This was completed in just over a month. A green-thumbed staff member took the initiative to plant vegetables, soon joined by others, creating a thriving garden.
After the renovation, the entire hotel was beyond recognition, earning praise from visitors. One even remarked, "You’ve turned an old hotel’s dining room into a Great Hall of the People-style lobby. That’s very impressive!"
In 1973, the author’s monthly salary was just over $30—essentially one dollar a day. China was still one of the poorest countries globally, with a per capita GDP of around $160-170. Roughly 80% of the population lived in rural areas, mostly engaged in subsistence farming. Industrial output was low, infrastructure underdeveloped, and living standards modest. This scarcity explains why the Liaison Office had to take a self-reliant and frugal approach for the renovation.
Despite these hardships, the early 1970s marked a "honeymoon period" in U.S.-China relations, a rare moment of cooperation and optimism. Perhaps this was due to China’s struggles with extreme poverty at the time. However, just as China will never return to that era of poverty, it seems unlikely that China and the U.S. will ever fully return to their diplomatic honeymoon. The world has changed, and so have the dynamics between these two global powers.