Zhou Enlai

The menu was signed in fountain pen by six influential Chinese statesmen, including Mao and Premier Zhou Enlai.

“To hold a menu signed by Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai is to hold a piece of the past – a piece that tells a story of diplomatic engagement, cultural exchange, and the forging of friendships that have endured through the decades,” Bobby Livingston, executive vice president at RR Auction, said in a statement.

He also played China against the Soviet Union with secret talks with Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai, which led to the ground-breaking 1972 summit between Nixon and Communist China’s “Great Helmsman,” Mao Zedong.

In July 1971, he eluded reporters and flew secretly to Beijing, where he quickly established a rapport with Premier Zhou Enlai.

Simultaneously, a dialogue was opened with the Chinese government, through Premier Zhou Enlai.