Mao offered Kissinger 10 million Chinese women

USAToday‘s "OnDeadline" blog finds some choice morsels from newly released transcripts of Henry Kissinger’s 1973 meeting with Mao:

You know, China is a very poor country," Mao is quoted as saying during the exchange. "We don’t have much. What we have in excess is women. So if you want them we can give a few of those to you, some tens of thousands."

The Chinese leader drew laughter when he returned to the proposition a few minutes later. "Do you want our Chinese women? We can give you 10 million." he said, adding: "We have too many women … They give birth to children and our children are too many."

It’s not clear whether Mao is at all serious — he was a pretty crazy dude, after all — but Kissinger’s response is precious:

It is such a novel proposition, we will have to study it.