'Who is CPC?': Edgar Snow, the first Western journalist to introduce Red China to the world
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Mao Zedong and Snow on the Tian'anmen gate tower, October 1, 1970
In 1972, one week before his death, Snow was visited by Huang Hua, then China's permanent representative to the United Nations, who took a detour to Geneva en route to New York. Huang brought Snow Mao Zedong's regards. George Hatem, a doctor sent by Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai to care for Snow, recalled, "The two of us (Hatem and Huang) and Snow had spent so many days and nights in the house caves in Bao'an… Snow recognized us instantly. He sat up in surprise and said, 'Great! Now the three Red Gangsters are reunited!' We both burst in laughter with him."
Today, by the lake in Peking University, one of China's most prestigious institutions of higher learning, there is a gravestone with the epitaph that reads, "In Memory of Edgar Snow, An American Friend of the Chinese People", written in both Chinese and English. Snow never hid his love for China. He is now resting in peace in China — as he wished in his will — a land that he deeply loves and where he is loved.
