[1] The seven-day official visit to three Chinese cities was the first time a U.S. president had visited the PRC; Nixon's arrival in Beijing ended 25 years of no communication or diplomatic ties between the two countries and was the key step in normalizing relations between the U.S. and the PRC. However, it's quite clear that China is now far bigger and far more influential than in 1972, and has the will and the capacity to try and reshape the global governance system and institutions in its own interests," he said. In the end, the final version of the communique, released at the scenic Jinjiang Hotel, Shanghai's first guest house for foreign dignitaries, on the eve of Nixon's departure back to the US, provided ambiguous assurance to China about Taiwan. The visit and subsequent normalization of relations with the West provided the ideological cover necessary for the economic reforms of the 1980s that launched China from a pariah state to the economic juggernaut that it is today. Zhou Yi - Less Revolution, More Realpolitik: Chinas Foreign Policy in the Early and Middle 1970s. The sharpest criticism of the visit didnt come from Nixons liberal opposition, but from conservatives from his own party who thought it was a betrayal of Taiwan, where the anti-communist Chinese government had fled after losing the civil war. And its only one of several important what if moments, where we can second-guess the counterfactual about what wouldve happened otherwise. It'll have no credibility, because how can two nations that have hated each other and fought each other and been isolated from each other for 22 years, suddenly put a document out like this that suggests they're friends?" LOPEZ: What we both want, reduced danger of confrontation and conflict, a more stable Asia and a restraint of USSR. 10. The visit inspired John Adams' 1987 opera Nixon in China. RUWITCH: The Soviet Union may be gone and the war in Vietnam long over. Tiffany Landmark Flagship in NYC Will Cater to Ultra-Elite Shoppers Nixon's visit played a role in leading to the September 1972 Japan-China Joint Communiqu. [3], Improved relations with the Soviet Union and the PRC are often cited as the most successful diplomatic achievements of Nixon's presidency. Mine was one of those. Shanghai at the Huangpu river with Shanghai Tower Did you know that China has the most skyscrapers in any country in the world? At the conference, John Foster Dulles, then secretary of state under Dwight D. Eisenhower, had famously refused to shake hands with Zhou Enlai, the Chinese premier and lead negotiator. Shelley Rigger, a professor of political science at Davidson College, says the way Nixon warmed relations with China in secret did not go down well in Taiwan. (As you know, the professorship I am now privileged to hold is named in honor of Jerry and Joan Cohen.). One of the deepest river canyons in the World, the spectacular Tiger Leaping Gorge is on the Jinsha River, a primary tributary of the upper Yangtse River, 60 kilometers north of Lijang City, Yunnan, in southwestern China. RUWITCH: He says the U.S. wanted help ending the war in Vietnam and a reduced threat of confrontation with China. LORD: Mao kept deflecting Nixon's efforts to engage in substantive exchanges. The Yangtze River is a well-known natural landmark in China. Nor would there have been a 1982 communique - in part because the Shanghai Communique emerged from a negotiating process in which Beijing was misled into thinking the US would not continue to support Taiwan militarily. Every moment of the weeklong visit was carefully orchestrated and staged, with TV cameras broadcasting it all to rapt audiences worldwide. While the visit was a public relations boon for both nations, Nixon and Kissinger failed to secure Chinas help in ending the war in Vietnam, and no real progress was made on the status of Taiwan. And it kept its defense treaty with Taiwan intact. And in the Shanghai Communique, the U.S. crucially acknowledged the Chinese position that Taiwan is a part of China. A memorable protest from Enver Hoxha of Albania, for example, asked Mao Zedong to reconsider his plan to host the US President. [7] Ulysses S. Grant visited China on a world tour after leaving office, meeting Prince Gong and Li Hongzhang. Richard Nixon - Mao Zedong | RealClearPolitics A blog of the History and Public Policy Program. [4] After World War II, Americans saw relations between the United States and the Soviet Union deteriorating, the Soviets consolidating communist allies over much of Eastern Europe, and the potential victory of CCP forces in the Chinese Civil War. Had Nixon not helped foster that atmosphere, arguably there would have been no need for a Nixon goes to China moment or it would have been much less dramatic. The conventional wisdom here treats almost every major decision in China as being driven by its antipathy toward the U.S. The US-China rapprochement, symbolized by Nixons visit, substantially altered the international balance of power and arguably concluded the Cold War in East Asia. Yafeng Xia - Negotiating the Return of Civilians: Chinese Perception, Tactics and Objectives at the First Fourteen Meetings of the Sino-American Ambassadorial Talks. The Nationalist government, supported by the Americans, fled to Taiwan, where the Republic of China (ROC) continued to be recognized by the United States and most other Western countries as the legitimate government for all of China. Aside from wining and dining, the two sat downseveral times to exchange views on a host of international problems from the Vietnam War to the Soviet Union to the status of Taiwan. History alone does not provide direct answers to these critical questions. The Prime Minister [Zhou] seeks clarity, and I am trying to achieve ambiguity.". The U.S. had diplomatic relations with the ruling Communist Party's arch enemy, the nationalists based in Taiwan. He would give a one or two-sentence answer and say, that's something for Premier Zhou Enlai to handle. "It's instructive that the US and China were able to reach a modus vivendi in spite of political and ideological differences in 1972 and afterwards. But the U.S., he said, had to take the long view in all of this. MARTIN: And it did. Landmarks can include historical, cultural, natural, and human-made constructions. What is not well understood about it? The communique issued on August 17, 1982 stated that the US took no position on Taiwan's sovereignty and that this was an issue the two sides of the Strait should resolve. "Kissinger's strategic goal - to kick Taiwan into the long grass to allow the US and China to pursue parallel and aligned interests - worked a treat. So, the fact that Nixon, as president, would be willing to embark in outreach to Beijing came as a surprise. Throughout the 1950s and much of the 1960s, the U.S. and PRC maintained a frosty relationship. Watergate scandal | Summary, History, Timeline, Deep Throat, & Facts The trip would begin a new period of Chinese-American relations. The Wilson Centers Digital Archive contains a considerable number of documents surrounding the Nixon visit to China. And from Beijing's perspective, the U.S. is once again playing the spoiler. Lets not forget his central role in the Red Scare rhetoric that essentially prevented other political figures from advocating for engagement with the PRC in a more tempered manner. An iconic black-and-white photo released afterwards shows Nixon and National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger sitting with Mao, a translator and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai. Luoyang's biggest attraction, these are among four of China's most famous ancient caves. Later interviews with correspondents who traveled with the President show how eager they were to be on the trip, which some labeled the most important summit meeting ever. Washington "acknowledged" the PRC's claim to the island - that "Taiwan is part of China" - and stated it "does not challenge" that claim. I think its only one of a series of contingent events that altered the course of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Nixon and Kissinger cooked up this idea of pitting the Soviet Union and China against each other with the United States as a third corner of the triangle to create a stable balance of power, says Evan Thomas, journalist and author of Being Nixon: A Man Divided. Instead, Zhou came up with a Chinese draft, with "the brilliant 'our side-your side' formula" as American diplomat Richard Holbrooke called it, in which each side stated its own position on areas of disagreement. Visitors can also flip through images on a touchscreen display from the yellow legal pads on which Nixon scribbled copious notes. The PRC leadership worried that their well-armed Soviet neighbors had designs on expanding their territory into Asia. On 15 July 1971 at 19:00 local time, US President Richard Nixon walked into an NBC television studio in California and announced to the world that he had accepted an invitation from Premier Zhou . They ask whether it really was the week that changed the world, and they question whether Nixon, a Republican and staunch anti-communist, was really the only American leader capable of opening relations with China. Pete Millwood - No, Not Only Nixon Could Go to China. I also think that in todays world of fragmented social media, its also much harder to pull off than it was in the early 1970s. Soon after Nixon settled into his hotel, he was told that Mao Zedong, the aging chairman of the Communist revolution wanted to meet with him. Nixon concluded the visit in the morning of February 28, when he left China on a flight to Anchorage, Alaska. Top 7 Landmarks in China Iconic and Renowned In February 1972, after a quarter-century of mutual antagonism between the United States and China, President Richard Nixon traveled to Beijing for an historic encounter with Chairman Mao Tse-tung. Awhirlwind tour through three of Chinas major cities brought Nixon to several famed historical sites and cultural performances (including a revolutionary ballet), andface-to-face with many senior Chinese leaders. Nixon was the first American president to ever visit mainland China while in office, a now almost routine act undertaken by US heads of state. So what they want, President Nixon writes, build up their world credentials. The surprise announcement was the result of months of top-secret diplomacy between the Nixon White House and Beijing. Before his election as president in 1968, former Vice President Richard Nixon hinted at establishing a new relationship with the PRC. Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team. "The secondary contradiction between the US and China was set aside so that both could focus on the primary contradiction," Rigger said. Nixon did not shift the Wests policy toward Communist China; it was already happening. Dave Roos is a freelance writer based in the United States and Mexico. Nixon and China: 50 Years Later - The Diplomat How has it framed the subsequent development of the U.S.-PRC relationship? The week-long visit, from February 21 to 28, 1972, allowed the American public to view images of mainland China for the first time in over two decades. A couple of weeks after Nixon returned home, the Taiwanese ambassador to the U.S. visited the White House. What was the backdrop? On February 22, 1972, the Peoples Daily printed a picture of Chairman Mao shaking hands with Richard Nixon. When I accompanied then-Dean Martha Minow to Taiwan in 2013, we had a very stimulating conversation with then-President Ma Ying-jeou S.J.D. On the 50th anniversary of President Nixons trip, China experts William Alford and Mark Wu discuss that history-making journey. But despite the intensity of the discussions, the Americans appeared to have failed to have "fully absorbed the centrality of Taiwan to PRC interests", according to the late US diplomat Alan Romberg, a leading expert on cross-strait relations. Nixons visit was not only symbolic; it was also substantive.