Ten Minutes with Mao

Ten minutes: that was the length of Mao’s meeting with Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Pakistan’s prime minister arrived in Beijing on 26 May 1976 and was received at Zhongnanhai the following evening. The official record gives the time exactly: 8:35 to 8:45 p.m.

1. The handshake

Provenance and sources for frame 1

The exposure was made at Zhongnanhai, Beijing, on 27 May 1976. Du Xiuxian photographed the meeting, but the available evidence does not securely assign this particular print to him. The displayed copy comes from Rare Historical Photos, a digital-file source rather than the archive or rights holder; no permission for free reuse is established. Displayed file: 1200 × 871 pixels. Full image record in Russian.

mzdbl.orgmarxists.orgrmrb.zhouenlai.infodangshi.people.com.cnrarehistoricalphotos.comView image file

Bhutto was accompanied by his wife Nusrat and minister Aziz Ahmed; Hua Guofeng attended on the Chinese side. A week later, Peking Review reported handshakes and a “cordial and friendly” conversation. The official record contains no later reception of a foreign guest by Mao.

Mao died on 9 September. The photograph of the May handshake has since been described as the last picture taken of him alive. What the documents establish is his last recorded reception of a foreign leader; they do not tell us whether anyone photographed him afterwards.