In September 1978, at the invitation of the prestigious Chinese people’s Institute of foreign affairs, Subramanian Swamy, then a Lok Sabha member of Parliament of the ruling Janata party and an elected member of the Party’s National executive, travelled to China as an envoy of the then prime Minister, Morarji Desai, where he met senior leader Ji pengfei. This led to the first contact, since 1962, between the ruling parties of both countries. Later, in April 1981, Swamy, the then deputy leader of the opposition, was invited to meet China’s Supreme leader, Chairman Deng Xiaoping. In this historic 100-minute meeting, Swamy successfully persuaded Deng to reopen the—Kailash Mansarovar route for Hindu pilgrims.