Source:

02-15-2006 13:42

In 1941, the outbreak of the Southern Anhui Incident resulted in serious damage to the Industrial Cooperative, established by Edgar Snow and his colleagues in 1937. His authentic reporting of the event caused the Kuomintang government to ban him from conducting further interviews in China. By this time, Edgar Snow had been living and working in China for 13 years. He then decided it was time to return to the United States. Back in his own country, Edgar Snow was initially feted as a bestselling author and an authority on Chinese issues. But later, during the McCarthy era, he was persecuted. Still, no matter where he found himself, and in what circumstances, he continued to show a keen interest in the newly established People's Republic of China.

The fact was that Edgar Snow was struggling under pressure McCarthyism. No American newspaper or magazine would publish anything he wrote, and his new wife almost lost her job because of her association with him. But as a journalist seeking truth, and someone genuinely concerned with China, Edgar Snow always hoped that one day he would return to China.

Edgar Snow was amazed by the changes he saw in the People’s Republic of China. By this time, he was much more than just a journalist seeking the truth; he had become something of a messenger, heralding the normalization of Sino-U.S. relations. On October 1, 1970, Snow was invited by Chairman Mao to view the National Day celebrations from the Tiananmen rostrum. His presence there was interpreted as a signal to the world that China was willing to improve its relations with the United States. Subsequently, on February 21, 1972, U.S. President Richard Nixon made his groundbreaking visit to China, marking an end to more than two decades of hostility between China and the United States.

 

Editor:Wang Ping