Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – June 28, 1985

I woke up during the call to prayer and slept until eight o'clock. I spent some time writing memoirs. I prepared to meet President Li Xianyan. He was a quarter of an hour late. The United Press agency took advantage of this delay and telexed the news that I was admitted to a hospital in China due to stomach cancer. This news exploded like a bomb in the world. I don't know what this news agency has thought about its credit and reputation; It must have been calculated.

The meeting with the president was more about compliments and usual words. In China, the president is a ceremonial position. Mr. Velayati and Aghazadeh also met with their counterparts and were satisfied. Then we went to meet Mr. Peng Zin, President of the Congress, and had a warm discussion about the strategy of the superpowers in creating regional wars and centers of conflict for exploitation and many abuses and weakening the third world. They are very upset with the Soviet Union and are allergic to it. They consider the three issues of Afghanistan, Cambodia and the Soviet forces on the border of China to be obstacles to improving relations.

Mr. Peng Zin gave a lunch party in our honor. I learned a lot about China at the lunch table. Usually, on the way, the Minister of Health of China is in my car with a translator and he answers my questions well. I have asked many things. They say that people's monthly income ranges from forty yuan to a thousand yuan. A simple worker gets forty yuan, but an artist or writer or factory manager might get up to a thousand yuan. The leaders and chiefs of the first class earn 400 yuan per month, plus housing or car, etc., and ministers earn 300 yuan. Yuan - the currency of China - is equal to 35% of one dollar. They claim that the income of villagers in China is higher than that of urban dwellers.