Mao had always kept in mind Albania, which he once called the “beacon of socialism in Europe,” and he remembered his old friend Hoxha. Hoxha was the great dictator who ruled Albania for decades. During China’s years of economic hardship, Mao gave Albania full support. Most of the large-scale Chinese aid projects have now fallen into disrepair, and most have been abandoned. Only some of the four-story apartment buildings built with Chinese assistance remain, old and worn.

In the 1960s, the bunkers built across Albania were largely made with Chinese steel and cement. At that time, tens of thousands of Chinese workers and technicians came to Albania to assist in various construction projects. Hundreds of thousands of bunkers built with Chinese aid are now useless and difficult to deal with; some have been converted into hostels, restaurants, cafés, chicken farms, warehouses, and other secondary uses.

When Hoxha died in 1985, he was still highly honored. He received a state funeral and was buried in the National Martyrs’ Cemetery. His tombstone read “Hoxha 1908–” with only his birth year and no date of death, symbolizing that he would live forever. In the early 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the transformation of the communist camp, his coffin was moved from the martyrs’ cemetery to a public cemetery. The pyramid-shaped Hoxha museum has since been repurposed and no longer commemorates him.

Mao felt disappointed by Albania’s changes. He longed to see Hoxha.

At midnight, Hoxha indeed appeared. Mao was overjoyed and warmly invited him to sit and talk.

Hoxha said: “Thank you very much for remembering me.”

Mao replied: “You are my old friend. In 1956 you came to Beijing to attend the Eighth National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party.”

Hoxha said: “I remember. That was my only visit to Beijing to see you. Unfortunately, afterward you were always busy with domestic affairs, and I had no further opportunity to return.”

Mao said: “In 1961, when I broke with Nikita Khrushchev, you stood on my side. You were my only European ally, so I called you the beacon of socialism in Europe.”

Hoxha said: “You were extremely generous. Whatever I needed, you provided—grain, industrial goods, military and civilian supplies. Large numbers of engineers and workers came to assist us.”

Mao said: “During those years I gave you 9 billion yuan in grants—equivalent to over one hundred billion today. Even the people in my own country had complaints. I spent 9 billion yuan to buy one beacon of light—quite expensive!”

Hoxha said: “Regrettably, my beacon did not illuminate much for you. Those were the hardest years for China. During the great famine when people starved to death, you still prioritized supplies to us. I was deeply grateful.”

Mao said: “The famine deaths were secondary. My first priority was ensuring the atomic bomb would be completed as soon as possible, using all available resources. Second was foreign aid. Albania was first; Vietnam, Cambodia, and Africa came next. As for starvation deaths, I denied them entirely abroad, always claiming no one starved.”

Hoxha said: “In fact, tens of millions of peasants died in those years. It was astonishing.”

Mao replied: “Those were just numbers. The reports of deaths—I ordered them burned.”

Hoxha said: “You might conceal it, but in Europe it could not be hidden. At least some humanitarianism should be acknowledged.”

Mao said: “For me, revolution comes first. Humanitarianism is a bourgeois concept. If the proletariat talks about humanitarianism, what revolution can there be?”

Hoxha asked: “If you refuse humanitarianism and cannot conceal the truth, what then?”

Mao said: “My Party can conceal it. Even more than forty years after my death, they still conceal it. People at home do not know and are not allowed to speak. But concealment lasts only for a time, not forever. With electronic communications so advanced and hundreds of millions online in China, it cannot be hidden much longer. I wonder how today’s leaders will face it.”

Hoxha said: “Today’s leaders have learned from you thoroughly. I believe they will succeed in continuing the concealment. Moreover, the new Cultural Revolution in China inherits your legacy. The wind of personality cult has risen again. You learned from Joseph Stalin’s personality cult; your Cultural Revolution was successful. I learned from you. Lin Biao compiled your Little Red Book; I had my Little White Book, Quotations from Hoxha. Before meals people sang songs praising me. When I visited factories, they stopped production three days in advance to prepare.”

Mao said: “You learned from Stalin and from me in conducting purges within the Party. We were similar—purging anti-Party groups batch after batch in culture, military, and economic fields. In the end, you purged your second-ranking figure, Mehmet Shehu, just as I eventually purged Lin Biao. Today’s anti-corruption campaigns also learn from us. I feel gratified that China has such a red successor.”

Hoxha said: “Officially it was said that Shehu committed suicide, but in reality I had him killed—much like your handling of Lin Biao.”

Mao said: “Yes. Officially Lin Biao died in a plane crash for lack of fuel; in reality I had him eliminated.”

Hoxha said: “Although we were supreme leaders, we always felt insecure. Increasingly suspicious, paranoid. Toward the end, fear grew stronger. If one bomber took off, I ordered a second to take off above it, ready to bomb it if suspicious. Later I added a third to monitor the second.”

Mao said: “I too suspected all generals and comrades. In the end, I trusted only my wife, my nephew, and the very honest Hua Guofeng—barely.”

Hoxha said: “You claimed orthodoxy in Marxism-Leninism; I was even more orthodox. In 1976, before your death, I asked Zhou Enlai for 500 tanks; he declined with difficulty. After you died, I began openly criticizing you as revisionist for dealing with American imperialism.”

Mao said: “My dealings with the United States were tactical, to counter Soviet revisionism. The Soviet Union’s nuclear weapons and tank divisions put enormous pressure on me. In 1969, without the United States’ restraint, I might have been finished.”

Hoxha said: “American imperialism was my lifelong target. To demonstrate my orthodox Marxism-Leninism, I had to oppose it to the end.”

Mao said: “In fact, we were both wrong. After my death, when Deng Xiaoping improved relations with the United States, China prospered nationwide. I initiated Sino-American diplomacy; Deng harvested the fruit I planted.”

Hoxha said: “Deng Xiaoping’s economic opening achieved more than Albania’s. But politically it did not open and remains behind Albania. Your statues still stand; I have long fallen.”

Mao said: “Yes, I can still lie peacefully in my memorial hall.”

Hoxha said: “Albania already had a nationwide movement encouraging people to speak the truth and cleanse my legacy. People were liberated in thought. In the past there was only one newspaper and one radio station; now there are over a hundred newspapers, mostly privately run. China has not yet reached that stage. I believe it will.”

Mao said: “I foresee that soon I will be exposed and criticized, and my ideas cleared away. Even the Jade Emperor in heaven is preparing a public trial. I have asked for an opportunity to meet various figures and seek understanding. Hearing from you about the truth-telling movement makes me feel I must prepare even more.”

Mao then asked: “How did your wife and children fare afterward?”

Hoxha said: “My wife was sentenced to nine years in prison, served five, and afterward received thirty U.S. dollars per month in pension. My eldest son runs his own business; my younger son works in foreign trade and has visited China. My daughter and her husband work in architectural design and live well. They all live as ordinary citizens and no longer engage in politics.”

Mao said: “Your family seems to have done reasonably well—better than mine, which was shattered. Do you still have a memorial hall?”

Hoxha replied: “No. The former pyramid-shaped museum has been repurposed. You still have yours, don’t you?”

Mao said: “For now. But I doubt it will last long.”

Hoxha said: “You should make preparations in advance to avoid embarrassment later.”

Mao said: “I am considering proposing that my memorial hall be demolished and replaced by a national monument to the victims, as tall as the Washington Monument.”

Hoxha said: “It would be wise to suggest it yourself, to avoid being disgraced later.”

Mao asked again: “Are there many Chinese in Albania?”

Hoxha said: “Not many—about two hundred. Albania is poor and sparsely populated; there is little opportunity for business.”

Seeing that the conversation had run its course, Hoxha exchanged polite farewells and departed.

NEXT: 16. Norodom Sihanouk (1922–2012)