China is where I wanted to stay forever — The paper tiger lady's six visits to China

"Mao Zedong on Paper Tiger", translated from Anna Louise Strong's publication in the American journal Amerasia

"The atom bomb is a paper tiger." "All reactionaries are paper tigers." "From a long-term point of view, it is not the reactionaries but the people who are powerful." These remarks soon took off as rallying calls among the troops and civilians in the liberated areas. They boosted the confidence and resolve of the Chinese to fight on without fear, thus playing an instrumental role in winning the People's War of Liberation. In just three years, the KMT, a big paper tiger with eight million troops armed to the teeth with US gears, was torn apart; the "three great mountains" of feudalism, imperialism and bureaucrat-capitalism were toppled; and a great victory was won. History would go on to show that this famous assertion could stand many grave tests of nuclear blackmail. This unfailing truth has played a significant role in consolidating a new-born government, upholding world peace and promoting human development and progress.

In early 1947, Strong concluded her fifth visit to China and had to leave Yan'an. She later wrote in a letter that China was where she "wanted to stay forever".

A letter from Zhou Enlai to Anna Louise Strong dated 20 February 1947, in which Zhou wrote, "Chairman Mao said that ... you will be a great 'publicist for the Chinese people'"

A letter from Anna Louise Strong to Zhou Enlai dated 9 November 1949

In 1958, Strong, then 73 years old, visited China for the sixth time. This time, she chose to stay and spend the rest of her life in China. On 30 March 1970, this American writer who loved China deeply passed away of illness in a country that she deemed as her "ideal resting place".

A cordial meeting between Mao Zedong and Anna Louise Strong on the Tian'anmen Gate Tower in 1965