After the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia,

Chairman Mao Zedong of the People's Republic of China met with the country's newly

victorious leader, Salasar, alias Pol Pot.

Mao was nearing the end of his life, but remained lucid as ever.

He could no longer see well enough to read, though he loved watching movies,

martial arts films from Hong Kong best of all, writes his biographer, Rebecca Carl.

Quote, Mao continued to attend party meetings, albeit now surrounded by medical staff and nurses,

end quote. His voice was going. His closest aides had taken to reading his lips to relay

what he said to colleagues and visitors.

In June 1975, Paul Pot visited Beijing for an audience with Chairman Mao.

Quote, the Cambodian communists intrigued Mao, writes Paul Potts' biographer, Philip Short.

The chairman spoke Chinese and snatches of English,

citing Huxley, Kant, and the fourth-century Buddhist missionary Kumar Rajiva.

Quote, whether Paul felt intimidated in Mao's presence, or whether his interpreter was

overwhelmed by the challenge of rendering into Khmer

Mao's elliptical reasoning, the transcript shows that Poles said nothing of substance.

Mao, on the other hand, had a lot to say."

He spoke in a swirl of dialectics, if not riddles. You have a lot of experience, Mao began.

Have you made mistakes or not? I don't know.

Certainly you have. So rectify yourselves.

Do rectification. The road is torturous.

Quote, Mao's repeated references to criticism and mistakes at a meeting with a friendly delegation were unusual, right short.

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