HONG KONG -- Historical revelations are rarely found in China's controlled presses. When they are, they have to be treated with care. Rewriting history remains part and parcel of Chinese politics. Chinese academics still get imprisoned for revealing documents that are in the public domain outside China.

So little notice was taken recently when a veteran Chinese diplomat gave a different rendition of an incident that, for many years, symbolized the 1949-1972 cold war between the United States and communist China.

Interviewed by the China Daily, diplomat Xiong Xianghui gave a different rendition of that famous moment at the 1954 Geneva conference on Indochina when Chinese Foreign Minister Zhou Enlai extended his hand to then Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, and Dulles snubbed him by turning his back.

As one of Dulles' biographers told the story "Zhou Enlai held out his hand in full view of the world's press, cameramen, and all the delegates and it stayed there, empty." Similar versions have appeared in countless accounts of Sino-American relations.

This dramatic rebuff gave rise to a famous witticism attributed to Winston Churchill -- "John Foster Dulles is the only case I know of a bull who carries his china shop around with him."

Xiong revealed that it was actually a less sensational but more substantial rebuff, as a British-instigated diplomatic minuet failed to materialize.

What happened was this, according to Xiong. On the opening day of the 1954 conference, British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden shook hands with Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov. Molotov then introduced Zhou to Eden, and they, too, warmly shook hands.

After this, one of Eden's deputies approached one of Zhou's aides, and asked if Zhou would be amenable to shaking hands with Dulles if Eden introduced the two of them the next day. Zhou assented to this idea.

But the next day Eden's deputy told Zhou's aide that, when asked, Dulles had rejected Eden's proposal for such an introduction. So, according to Xiong's story (he was press officer to the Chinese delegation at the time) Zhou never actually extended his hand to Dulles -- since he knew in advance that any such gesture would be spurned.

This more complex story has the ring of truth. As far as I know, there are no existing photographs of this highly dramatic moment, as it was previously described. If the world's cameramen were there, they must have all run out of film simultaneously.

But there was a little Chinese historical rewriting by the China Daily, as it claimed that it was the Americans who played up the handshake as an issue during the 1972 Nixon visit. Remembering the story of the 1954 rebuff, U.S. President Richard Nixon made a particular point of stretching out his hand, as Zhou greeted him on his arrival in Beijing.

In 1972, both nations played up the Nixon-Zhou handshake. In fact, at that time, the Chinese were still smarting from the Dulles rejection.

When U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger arrived in Beijing on his initial secret mission from Islamabad in 1971, one of his assistants, John Holdridge, was quietly approached soon after they landed in the Chinese capital by Huang Hua, who was then Chinese ambassador to Canada and subsequently served as foreign minister. Huang wanted to know: Would Kissinger shake Zhou Enlai's hand when they met?

In 1972, the bitter memory of the 1954 incident was still fresh. Of course, there was never any question but that Kissinger, and later Nixon, would extend the courtesy of a handshake to the Chinese leaders.

But Huang just wanted to make sure. The Chinese were still uncertain as to where they stood with the Americans -- and memories of that Geneva incident were still strong.

Meanwhile, the 30th anniversary of Nixon's visit was misused to illustrate that past Chinese leaders may still remain nonpersons as China fails to accurately rewrite its history.

A sharp-eyed reporter for Kyodo News Agency recently spotted that an official photographic record of the last 30 years of Sino-American exchanges still omitted all mention of Zhao Ziyang, purged in 1989 for expressing sympathy with the massive student demonstration on Tiananmen Square.

In January 1984, Zhao Ziyang became the first Chinese communist prime minister to make an official visit to the U.S.

In February 1989, as general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, Zhao Ziyang hosted the official visit of then President George H.W. Bush to China.

Neither event was mentioned in the official record, Kyodo reported. This suggests that, to the contrary of the expectations of many China-watchers, the CCP is still as far removed as ever from a reversal of verdicts on the 1989 Tiananmen massacre.