Nixon did not shift the Wests policy toward Communist China; it was already happening. Mao spoke simply and inelegantly, but clearly communicated approval of the visit and its diplomatic utility. In the two decades since China's Communist Revolution, the countries' Cold War relationship. What Lessons Can We Learn from The Week that Changed the World?. President Nixon shaking hands with Premier Chou Enlai at the foot of the Air Force One stair ramp, while First Lady Pat Nixon and Chinese officials stand nearby, February 21, 1972. Through an award winning Digital Archive, the Project allows scholars, journalists, students, and the interested public to reassess the Cold War and its many contemporarylegacies. Astill rather tedious negotiating and acculturation process was necessary before the formal exchange of diplomatic relations could be achieved in 1979, and before business, military, cultural, and people-to-people ties could flourish over the next few decades. At one point Nixon intervened, cautioning Zhou that "if too much was said publicly, that would be seized upon by Americans who opposed the opening to China from both right and left as an excuse to disrupt normalisation". And from Beijing's perspective, the U.S. is once again playing the spoiler. An overview of Richard Nixons February 1972 visit to China and associated Wilson Center publications and Digital Archive resources. Wu: Taiwan saw the Nixon and Carter administrations actions as betrayals. Zhou challenged Kissinger, who appeared more interested in a Soviet-style communique that highlighted areas of agreement despite their divergent views on most issues. As Kissinger himself explained during his second China trip: "The trouble is that we disagree, not that we don't understand each other. Yafeng Xia - Negotiating the Return of Civilians: Chinese Perception, Tactics and Objectives at the First Fourteen Meetings of the Sino-American Ambassadorial Talks. The outreach by Nixon and [National Security Adviser Henry] Kissinger was of great consequence, of course, but the portrayal of China as entirely passive waiting for the U.S. to come along irks me. Although fictional, it illustrates how the Nixon visit impacted the subsequent lives of numerous Chinese American families. For two decades, my grandparents had been afraid to get in touch, lest it cause further harm to my uncles. Examining China's perceptions and tactics in negotiating with the United States during the Cold War, this Working Paper features an introduction by Yafeng Xia and translations of more than 30 original documents from the Chinese Foreign Ministry. Great Hall of the People, Tiananmen Square, Beijing. Today, the Potala Palace is a museum. Fifty years ago today, President Nixon landed in Beijing for the historic weeklong trip that effectively ended the United States' long isolation from the People's . Whats your assessment of that? [27] This resulted in putting off deliberations over the establishment of a Beijing-Washington hotline, which was first proposed during the visit to China and discussed between Kissinger and Zhou in November 1973 meetings. The fate of Taiwan was not addressed, and the issue still stalks U.S.-China. Alford: I think that, as with so much else in the U.S.-China relationship for the past two centuries, treatment of the Nixon trip remarkably has been viewed almost exclusively through a U.S. prism, with almost no attention to the Chinese side. For Beijing, the Soviet Union was the primary contradiction, while the primary issues for the US were the Soviets and the Vietnam war. Copyright (c) 2022. On February 22, 1972, the Peoples Daily printed a picture of Chairman Mao shaking hands with Richard Nixon. That said, it seems to me that without some measure of principled engagement (meaning an engagement in which we do not abandon our values), no global regime (be it about climate change, trade, rights or anything else) will flourish. "[19][20], As an observer of the MaoNixon meeting, Lord noted Mao's peasant-like sensibilities and self-deprecating humor. It has statues of Nixon and Zhou Enlai, a video documentary and artifacts, like a tin of panda cigarettes from a banquet. In the five decades since, Taiwan has remained separate from the mainland. We understand each other very well. Nixon's porcelain swans statue, a gift to Mao, was presented along the way in the gift-giving ceremony.[21]. On the morning of February 21, 1972, US President Richard Nixon landed in the People's Republic of China. RUWITCH: Washington didn't agree to switch diplomatic relations right away, though. While on a diplomatic trip to Pakistan, Kissinger feigned a stomach illness that would keep him locked away in his hotel room for several days. National Security Council staffer (and later U.S. But the second visit in October 1971 was very different to the first because it coincided with the United Nations General Assembly's annual debate and vote over membership for the People's Republic of China. How has it framed the subsequent development of the U.S.-PRC relationship? 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. Another element that is not well understood is how divided U.S. allies were in their China policy in the early 1970s. A couple of weeks after Nixon returned home, the Taiwanese ambassador to the U.S. visited the White House. The visit was a visual spectacle for the US President, his entourage, and much of the rest of the world, which closely watched the American leader's travels inside the world's largest communist country. Most importantly, but for the opening, I would not, while in the mid-1980s creating the first academic program in U.S. law in the PRC, have met my wonderful wife. Richard Nixon Library,WHPO-8521-17a, National Archives Identifier:40509550. But talk of Taiwan would have to wait. Fifty years after Nixons history-making journey, Harvard Law Today turned to two China experts to understand its significance, both then and now. RUWITCH: He says the U.S. wanted help ending the war in Vietnam and a reduced threat of confrontation with China. It's been 50 years since President Nixon went to China, a trip that changed the world's balance of power. Tiffany Landmark Flagship in NYC Will Cater to Ultra-Elite Shoppers Over the course of a week, he met with Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong, negotiated with Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai, and toured historical and cultural institutions including the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, Shanghai, and Hangzhou. It was recorded on the Nixon tapes. These China landmarks are recognized as some of the country's top attractions and can be seen on the six Chinese banknotes from 1 to 100. Code-named "[Operation Marco] Polo II" and publicly announced weeks before Kissinger left for China, it was effectively a full-scale dress rehearsal for the historic presidential visit. Today . But from the Chinese perspective, Nixon's words were prophetic. Taipei eventually left the U.N. And Beijing was voted in in the fall of 1971. What are its consequences? Zhou Yi analyzes a speech made by a senior Chinese official at an unexpected venue - a tourism conference - in March 1975 to decode broad shifts in Chinese foreign policy at the end of the Mao era. US President Richard Nixon and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai toast, February 25, 1972, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum Itinerary of President Richard Nixon's historic trip to. [citation needed] Eisenhower made a state visit to Taiwan in 1960, during the period when the United States recognized the Republic of China government in Taipei as the sole government of China. On July 15, 1971, President Richard Nixon addressed the nation in a live televised broadcast to make an unexpected announcement: he had accepted an invitation from Beijing to become the first. Domestic events in China that followed the visit, such as Deng Xiaoping prevailing in the leadership struggle, will likely prove even more important. HLT: You each have personal and professional ties with respect to the PRC and Taiwan. The two sides hadnt spoken for decades, and the United States was at war with the Communist North Vietnamese in Chinas backyard. And they're telling. LORD: We pulled it off, I think, very skillfully because the two sides basically agreed to postpone intractable problems, like Taiwan, so we could get on where we could cooperate. The first, Sino-American Confrontation, 1949-1971" provides insights into the contentious relationship from the founding of the PRC roughly up through National Security Advisor Henry Kissingers secret visit to China in 1971. William P. Alford: Thank you, Mark. By the late 1960s, frequent border skirmishes between the Soviets and the Chinese verged on all-out war. Richard Nixon - Mao Zedong | RealClearPolitics 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. [citation needed]. Copyright 2022 NPR. 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. China Landmarks - 40 Historical Places in China - thetripgoeson "Both would agree that Nixon's trip and US-China rapprochement was [the] result of a common threat, without which US-China relations are bound to change.". Kazushi Minami - Why did Mao Shake Hands with Nixon? They also highlight that Nixon was perhaps a follower, not a trendsetter, among democratic countries in seeking a new modus vivendi with China. Photographs of Nixon standing on top the Great Wall, viewing The Red Detachment of Women,or toasting Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai circulated widely around the globe. Pete Millwood - No, Not Only Nixon Could Go to China. And it kept its defense treaty with Taiwan intact. Nixon and Mao: the handshake that turned Taiwan towards a new future The tower is 632 m/ 2,073 ft high and thus the second tallest tower in the world - after Burj Khalifa, which stands in the UAE . JOE LOPEZ: This is an interesting one here, this section - what they want, what we want, what we both want. A longtime contributor to HowStuffWorks, Dave has also been published in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and Newsweek. Those islands featured repeatedly during the famous 1960 presidential debates when Nixon repeatedly tried to cast Kennedy as soft in his willingness to defend allies against communism. Only after the Nixon visit did my father dare to reach out to his brothers, leading to the family being reunited many years later. As always, avoid the holidays 1-7 May, and 1-7 October. RUWITCH: And, she says, it also created mistrust between Beijing and Washington. 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. Overall, I think were in a period of strategic competition, with a lingering sense of mistrust on both sides. The Shanghai Tower is the tallest structure in China. MacMillan provides vivid thumbnail biographies of the four major players in the drama of that weeklong visit, Nixon, Mao, Henry Kissinger and Chou En-lai, each a fascinating character in his own right. While it was Nixon, an ardent anti-communist, who made the about-face decision to open up relations with China in 1969, Kissinger was initially sceptical and called Nixon's idea a "flight of fantasy". Key materials from February 1972 include the verbatim records and agreements of US-China bilateral exchanges, including: Memorandum of Conversation between Chairman Mao Zedong and President Richard Nixon, February 21, 1972, Memorandum of Conversation between Richard Nixon and Zhou Enlai, February 22, 1972, Joint Communiqu of the United States of America and the People's Republic of China (Shanghai Communiqu), February 27, 1972, Although declassified Chinese language records from the February 1972 are generally lacking (the Chinese Foreign Ministry Archives never released any materials dated later than 1966), the Digital Archive does feature a number of sources from before and after the visit. The Prime Minister [Zhou] seeks clarity, and I am trying to achieve ambiguity.". Upon being introduced to Nixon for the first time, Mao, speaking through his translator, said to Nixon: "I believe our old friend Chiang Kai-shek would not approve of this". Nixons historic visit to China was the high point of a presidency later stained by the Watergate scandal and his resignation in 1974. To be sure, some American academics, including Jerome Cohen, who was the founding director of Harvards East Asian Legal Studies program, had from the late 60s been urging a re-evaluation of U.S.-China policy. [14], President Nixon, his wife, and their entourage left the White House on February 17, 1972, spending a night in Kaneohe Marine Corps Air Station, Oahu, Hawaii. For the 50th anniversary of the "week that changed the world"--- the summit between the United States and China from February 21-28, 1972 during which US President Richard Nixon met with Chinese Communist Party leader Mao Zedong---this video features excerpts from China experts on the significance of what is considered one of the major diplomatic turning points in modern history. By the time of Nixons visit, Mao was ailing, and his succession plans, as set forth by the 1969 Party Congress, had fallen apart. 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. The biggest coup was Kissingers secret visit to Beijing in July 1971 to meet face-to-face with the Chinese leader Chou Enlai. Niu Jun, a historian and expert on international affairs from Peking University, said that besides the Taiwan aspect, the section on common interests - especially the joint commitment on opposing hegemony - also stood out in the 1,800-word document. On the morning of February 21, 1972, US President Richard Nixon landed in the Peoples Republic of China. inflation. Op-Ed: How Nixon trip to China created today's Taiwan crisis - Los It adds textures and nuance to our understanding of China's mindset and strategies in diplomatic negotiations, and should aid American diplomats dealing with China in the 21st Century. When Richard Nixon took office in 1969, it marked the 20th anniversary of the creation of the Peoples Republic of China, and 20 years of frozen diplomatic relations between the United States and Communist China. Known as the "city of sails" thanks to its fabulous harbor and yachting community, Auckland is one of New Zealand's most beautiful cities, as well as the largest, with an incredible skyline and some fabulous beaches. Harvard Law School provides unparalleled opportunities to study law with extraordinary colleagues in a rigorous, vibrant, and collaborative environment. 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. U.S. President Nixon shakes hands with Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai at, important strategic and diplomatic overture, U.S. established full diplomatic relations with the PRC, Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting, visit by Deng Xiaoping to the United States, Visit by Deng Xiaoping to the United States, "China and the United States: Nixon's Legacy after 40 Years", "Ulysses S. Grant: International Arbitrator (U.S. National Park Service)", "CHINA POWER Kissinger's Visit, 40 Years On", "Getting to Beijing: Henry Kissinger's Secret 1971 Trip", "Nixon In China Itinerary, Feb. 17 -28, 1972", "Nixon Asserts That Western Rightists Pleased Mao", "Nixon's China's Visit and "Sino-U.S. Joint Communiqu", "1972 Election - 1972 Year in Review - Audio - UPI.com", "Assignment: China The Week that Changed the World", "Memorandum of Conversation between Chou En-lai and Henry Kissinger", "EXCERPT OF MAO ZEDONG'S CONVERSATION WITH JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER KAKUEI TANAKA", "MAO ZEDONG, 'SETTLEMENT OF THE QUESTIONS OF RESTORATION OF DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS BETWEEN CHINA AND JAPAN STILL DEPENDS ON THE GOVERNMENT OF THE LIBERAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY', How Nixon's China Visit affected U.S. Inflation for 50 Years, "China State Dinners: President Jimmy Carter and President Richard Nixon talk with Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping of China", Nixon's Trip to China, including the President's recollections documented on White House tapes, Index of articles on Nixon's foreign policy, including China, Nixon's Trip to China: Records now Completely Declassified, Including Kissinger Intelligence Briefing and Assurances on Taiwan, Presidential transition of Dwight D. 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One famous landmark in China that you absolutely need to experience is the Dujiangyan Panda Base (also known as the Chengdu Research Base Of Giant Panda Breeding). From February 21 to 28, 1972, U.S. President Richard Nixon traveled to Beijing, Hangzhou, and Shanghai. If we scratch away the theatrics, The Week that Changed the World looks less momentous than many have portrayed it. How could Mao pull off such a stunt after two decades of intense anti-US propaganda? China is modernizing rapidly, a fact which makes its ancient treasures all the more precious. [13] For this ambitious goal to be reached President Nixon had carried out a series of carefully calibrated moves through Communist China's allies Romania and Pakistan. 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. Dave Roos is a freelance writer based in the United States and Mexico. In one Chinese record from December 1970, Mao Zedong confided to Edgar Snow that he liked Nixon's "reactionary" approach to foreign policy and desired to speak with him directly. LORD: Mao kept deflecting Nixon's efforts to engage in substantive exchanges. 2, 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. 14 Most Famous Landmarks in New Zealand | Celebrity Cruises The second collection, Sino-American Cooperation, 1972-1989," details the new, cooperative phase in relations that followed Nixons visit in 1972 and lasted until the brutal crackdowns on Chinas pro-democracy movement in 1989. On July 15, 1971, the President announced on live television that he would visit the PRC the following year.[2]. In the aftermath of the Chinese civil war, the communists had captured mainland China and declared the founding of the Peoples Republic in 1949. When former American national security adviser Henry Kissinger returned to Beijing three months after his secret groundbreaking trip in July 1971, the real test had just begun for the Cold War rivals seeking rapprochement through dialogue. Top 10 Landmarks in China, China's Landmarks - China Educational Tours Nixon's historic trip to China: how the landmark Shanghai Communique What is not well understood about it? [29][30] In his discussion with Japanese PM Kakuei Tanaka, Mao Zedong recounted, "I told Nixon, 'I voted for you when you ran for President. RUWITCH: He asks if Nixon had a message for Taiwan's president, Chiang Kai-shek. 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 . The pair and their aides worked hard and spent more than 11 hours negotiating through seven drafts of the communique. Early in his first term, Nixon, through his National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger, sent subtle overtures hinting at warmer relations to the government of the PRC. No. Nixon himself had won early political fame as an anti-communist hawk with his pursuit of Alger Hiss, a former State Department official accused of spying for the Soviet Union. And its only one of several important what if moments, where we can second-guess the counterfactual about what wouldve happened otherwise. Just two months after Nixon returned from Beijing, he set off again for Moscow, where he and Leonid Brezhnev signed the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT) and made plans for a joint U.S.-U.S.S.R. space flight in 1975. Under the cover of night, Kissinger boarded a private Pakistani jet to Beijing, where he personally asked the PRC leadership to approve an official state visit from the American president. Kissinger and his assistant Winston Lord were also present. 8 Most Famous Landmarks in China - Traveluto It was a stunning development in international politics, one that has often been hailed as a week that changed the world.. President Nixon meets with his National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger, en route to China, 1972. After reading the memoirs of Henry Kissinger, who had served as both national security adviser and . He would give a one or two-sentence answer and say, that's something for Premier Zhou Enlai to handle. President Nixon arrives in China for talks - History Resolving the Vietnam War was a particularly important factor. The Digital Archive also contains the record of a talk between Zhou Enlai and the U.S. table tennis team, an important stepping stone to the Nixon visit. Nixon himself had served as vice president during the Eisenhower administration, which had been steadfast in its support of the ROC, when the Chinese Communists attempted to retake the islands of Kinmen and Matsu. The U.S. had literally turned a cold shoulder to Chou in 1954, says Thomas. Premier Zhou chaperoned Nixon for most of the trip, having been delegated responsibility for the fine grain details of US-China relations by Chairman Mao. While Zhou Enlai described the Taiwan issue as "the crucial question", Nixon also viewed it as a touchstone for both sides. His doctors weren't sure he could do this meeting. To avoid embarrassing Secretary of State William P. Rogers, Nixon requested to the Chinese for Lord to be cropped out of all the official photographs of the meeting. There was spittoons, standing lamps. LORD: But then we realized in the coming days that Mao had rather skillfully, somewhat elliptically and certainly laconically sort of put down a few markers, which gave Zhou Enlai the authority and the structure to elaborate Chinese positions in much greater detail. They arrived the next day in Guam at 5 pm, where they spent the night at Nimitz Hill, the residence of the Commander, Naval Forces, Marianas. The media presented Nixon communicating with Chinese government officials, attending dinners, and being accorded tours with other people of influence. As Mark suggests, there are and will be areas of profound disagreement, given important differences in values. Former Embassy of Taiwan, Washington, D.C. Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Houston, Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States, Former Ambassador of the United States to China, American Institute in Taiwan Kaohsiung Branch Office, Former Embassy of the United States in Taipei, July 2002 state visit to the United States, Taiwan Relations Act Affirmation and Naval Vessel Transfer Act of 2014, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=1972_visit_by_Richard_Nixon_to_China&oldid=1144251046, Short description is different from Wikidata, Pages using multiple image with auto scaled images, Articles with unsourced statements from February 2022, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 12 March 2023, at 17:52. Harvard Law Today: This is the 50th anniversary of Richard Nixons trip to China. The statement enabled the U.S. and PRC to temporarily set aside the "crucial question obstructing the normalization of relations"[23] concerning the political status of Taiwan and to open trade and other contacts. [26], Nixon's visit to China was well-planned. RUWITCH: Lord says the Americans were a little disappointed at first. Some commentators are now reflecting on the decisions made by Nixon in 1972 and whether the decision to embrace China was a sound strategic . So what they want, President Nixon writes, build up their world credentials.