Looking grim, next to his patron and rival, Stalin, at the ceremony for Stalin’s seventieth birthday, Moscow, December 1949. To Stalin’s left is East Germany’s leader Walter Ulbricht, to whom Mao suggested buiding a wall; Mongolia’s Tsedenbal far right; Soviet Marshal Bulganin in the centre (rear). Behind Mao’s right shoulder is his interpreter Shia Zhe, who provided us with much valuable information about Mao’s relationship with Stalin.