Chinese diplomat, Mao's interpreter dies

Ji Chaozhu, a veteran Chinese diplomat who provided English translation for leaders including Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping and served as an undersecretary of the United Nations, has died at the age of 90, the foreign ministry says.

Ji also served as ambassador to Britain over the course of a lengthy career that began after he left Harvard University to return to China during the Korean War, when US and Chinese troops engaged in vicious combat.

After briefly studying at prestigious Tsinghua University, he was assigned by dint of his fluent English to assist with the peace talks at the Korean village of Panmunjon between the warring sides.

That led to a job as interpreter to Premier and Foreign Minister Zhou Enlai as well as Mao, with whom he appeared on the reviewing stand atop iconic Tiananmen Gate when foreign guests were present.

After Mao's death, Ji took on a similar role with successor Deng Xiaoping. Having been dispatched by Zhou to set up an informal liaison office in the US in 1973, Ji accompanied Deng to the country after the establishment of formal diplomatic relations between the long-time antagonists in 1979 and later worked at the Chinese embassy in Washington DC.

That was followed by assignments as ambassador to Fiji and the UK and five years as a UN under-secretary-general for development support and management services, a position from which he retired in 1996.

His last post was as vice president of the All China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese, from which he stepped down in 2005.

In a brief notice sent to The Associated Press, the foreign ministry said Ji died on April 29 in Beijing from an unspecified illness.