"IN those years of isolation from the West, Mr. Ji bicycled to work, earned about $10 a month and had but one blue Mao suit
"The United States delegation [headed by Nixon or Kessinger] usually came without its own interpreters [but relied on China's such as Ji and Nancy Tang]. 'Nixon really didn’t trust the State Department to keep a secret, so we didn’t really have anyone of our own,' Winston Lord, an aide who traveled with Mr. Kissinger and Mr. Nixon to Beijing, said in an interview.
"To this day, Mr Ji insists that he speaks poor Chinese and can barely write decent Chinese characters.