Thread by @JanePerlez

1/ In the dead of night, the leader of China, Deng Xiaoping, is secretly whisked from DC to CIA HQ. Deng has serious business there. The visit has never been reported before. I break the story in my podcast, The Great Wager, about Nixon to China available @WBUR @NPR 🧵👎

2/ Deng asks to go to CIA to meet director, Stansfield Turner. His car slides into underground garage, almost everyone has gone home. It's Jan. 31, 1979, last day of his celebrated visit to DC. He is escorted to the first floor comms center, shown a big map of China 🧵👎

3/ He is there to firm up plans for joint US China spy stations, a result of Nixon bringing China to the US side against the USSR. The stations are being set up to spy on Soviet missile tests, to make sure Soviets abide by arms control treaties. 🧵👎

4/ Deng is shown imagery of where the stations will be in Western China. He rides elevator to 7th floor to meet Turner; deputy, Carlucci, and Lilley, CIA top China expert. They meet for 45 mins, enough for agreement to move ahead,🧵👎

5/Not so easy to get Deng into CIA without world knowing. CIA looked for "white time" on his schedule: when he would be meeting w his own people after WH festivities. The last night provides that opening, before he flies off to Texas, Georgia, Washington State. 🧵👎

6/ On his first trip to China in spring 1979, Joe Biden, Senator from Delaware, asks Deng about the stations. Deng gives another green light. A few months later, C-141s land at Beijing airport loaded with American computers, radars for the stations. 🧵👎

7/ About two dozen technical experts from NSA's military services set up shop in Western Beijing to train Chinese how to operate the American equipment. Deng insists his people are in charge so they can catch up after devastation of Cultural Revolution. 🧵👎

8/ Later, Turner visits Beijing. Robert Gates is along as a junior CIA officer, specializing in the Soviet Union. Trip is super-secret. They meet Deng at run-down house. A senior person from CIA science division flies out to the remote stations. 🧵👎

9/ I spoke to a CIA operative who visited the stations: the Americans always went in pairs. They got friendly w Chinese techies after hours. The stations were almost adjacent to Soviet sites: they could see the lights across the border. The stations ran for about a decade. 🧵👎

10/ The operation was set in motion by Nixon's strategy of getting close to China. It was Exhibit A of the triangle: China and US vs Soviet Union. Polar opposite of right now. My podcast w @ScottTong and producer @GraceTatter, is on @WBUR and @hereandnow
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@ScottTong @GraceTatter @WBUR @hereandnow 11/You can find out even more on @hereandnow's podcast feed, or on their website - where we have the episodes as well as links to other resources: hereandnow.org/thegreatwager"