あの人が米大統領に？！　バイデン氏が２０年前に訪問、中国の小村を取材

【北京ＡＦＰ＝時事】中国・北京近郊の小村を約20年前、近く米国で最大の権力を持つことになる外国人が訪れていた──ジョー・バイデン氏だ。（写真は中国・北京郊外の燕子口村で、米国のジョー・バイデン氏と握手するガオ・シャンさん＜左＞）
　２００１年８月、当時上院外交委員長を務めていたバイデン氏は中国を公式訪問した際、燕子口村に立ち寄り、住民に声を掛け、子どもたちにアイスクリームを買い与えていた。
　ＡＦＰは今週、当時撮影された資料写真を持参して同村を訪れた。当時２１歳だったというタン・シャオジュンさんは、自宅で生後２か月の息子の世話をしていたところ、外国の政府関係者らの訪問を受けた。その頃の中国の地方部では珍しい光景だ。
　タンさんはＡＦＰに対し、「私たちのところに来ようと選んだのは、わが家が村で最も貧しく、みすぼらしかったからだと思う」と語った。タンさんの家はその後改築され、さまざまな植物とマホガニー材の家具で彩られている。
　バイデン氏はタンさんの息子を抱き上げ、キスをして立ち去った。後になって、台所の包丁の下に餞別（せんべつ）として２００元（現レートで約３２００円）が残されているのを見つけたという。
　「将来また来るよと言っていた」とタンさん。タンさんの夫のリウ・シャンカイさんは「その時私は思った、外国人は偉大だな、中国人を差別しないのだなと」と振り返った。
　夫妻は今回ＡＦＰの取材を受けるまで、あの時村を訪れた人物が、今回の米大統領選で当選を確実にしたバイデン氏だったとは認識していなかったという。
　それから２０年。中国の急速な経済成長は、この国の大部分に目覚ましい変化をもたらした。
　村民の大半が、当時のバイデン氏訪問をぼんやりとしか覚えていないが、ＡＦＰの資料写真には、笑顔の同氏の周りに子どもや大人たちが集まっている様子が捉えられている。
　当時９歳で、バイデン氏と握手をする様子が写真に収められたガオ・シャンさん（２９）は、君がいつか中国の指導者になるかもしれないなと、バイデン氏が冗談を言ったのを覚えているという。
　「あの時、私の幸運を祈ってくれたあの人が、今や次期大統領になるなんて──すごいことだ」とガオさん。「今度は私が彼の幸運を祈っている」
　リウさんは、バイデン氏が村を訪れたことを「とても誇らしい」と感じており、「あちらが中国と問題を起こさないなら、いつ再訪してもらっても構わない」と語った。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2020/11/16-13:07）

Nearly two decades ago, the residents of a small Chinese village near Beijing were visited by a foreigner who is soon to become America's most powerful man: Joe Biden.
In August 2001, now President-elect Biden was chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee when he made an official visit to China and stopped at the village of Yanzikou, talking with villagers and buying ice creams for the children.
Tang Shaojun, then aged 21, was at home caring for her two-month-old son when the foreign officials came knocking -- a rare sight at the time in rural China.
I think they chose to visit us because our house was the poorest and shabbiest in the village at the time, Tang told AFP from her home in the village, which has since been rebuilt and is now filled with plants and mahogany furniture.
We didn't even have a refrigerator or modern appliances. We had no gas stove and had to cook on a coal stove. Flies were buzzing everywhere, her husband Liu Changkai, 40, added.
Biden held her infant son in his arms and gave him a kiss -- before leaving 200 yuan ($30) hidden under a kitchen cleaver as a parting gift the family discovered later.
He said he will come and visit again in future, and remarked that he had a granddaughter around the same age, Tang recalled this week, wearing a T-shirt emblazoned Gucci and standing below an ornamental picture of Chairman Mao Zedong, founder of Communist China.
We were certainly very excited... I then thought that foreigners were pretty great and didn't discriminate against Chinese people, added Liu.
- 'I wish him luck' -
The couple didn't realise that the man who had visited back then was actually incoming US President Joe Biden until AFP reporters took back archive photos of his 2001 visit to show them this week.
In the decades since, rapid economic growth in China has changed much of the country beyond recognition.
Many of the old stone shacks in Yanzikou have been torn down and redeveloped into two-storey dwellings or guesthouses which cater to tourists visiting the nearby Great Wall, one of the New Seven Wonders of the World.
Most residents had a dim recollection of events, but AFP photos taken at the time show children and adults gathered around a smiling Biden.
He also visited the village church and received mass from the priest at the time.
He was very friendly and intimate, greeting all the Chinese people... he bought one or two popsicles for the kids, recalled Li Hua, a 57-year-old farmer featured in one of the photos.
One of the children, Gao Shan, was nine when he was pictured shaking hands with the US president-to-be -- and remembers Biden joking that perhaps Gao would become the leader of China one day.
Back then, he wished me well and now he will become the next president -- that's awesome, said 29-year-old Gao, who works in sales and still lives in the village.
I wish him luck.
Liu said he feels very proud that Biden visited his village.
If they don't cause trouble with China, they can come back anytime.