Nixon Goes to China
Thirty-nine years ago from today, from February 21st to the 28th in 1972, President Richard Nixon traveled to China, vising Beijing, Hangzhou and Shanghai. When Nixon arrived in the Chinese capital he met with Chairman Mao who, unknown to the Americans, had been ill nine days earlier but was at that point feeling strong enough to meet Nixon. Secretary of State William P. Rogers was excluded from this meeting and the only other American present was National Security Council staffer (and later U.S. Ambassador to China) Winston Lord. To avoid embarrassing Rogers, Lord was cropped out of all the official photographs of the meeting. Although Nixon was in China for a week, this was his only meeting with Mao. At the meeting, Mao's first words to Nixon were: "Yesterday in the airplane you put forth a very difficult problem for us."
On the trip, Nixon met several times with Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai, including visits to the Great Wall, Hangzhou, and Shanghai. At the conclusion of his trip, the United States and the PRC Governments issued the Shanghai Communiqué, a statement of their foreign policy views, National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger announced that the U.S. also intended to pull all its forces out of the island of Taiwan. In the communiqué, both nations pledged to work toward the full normalization of diplomatic policy.
The U.S. acknowledged the notion that all Chinese on both sides of the Taiwan Strait maintain that there is only one China. Nixon and the U.S. government reaffirmed their interests in a peaceful settlement of the Taiwan question agreed by the Chinese themselves. The statement enabled the U.S. and PRC to temporarily set aside the "crucial question obstructing the normalization of relations" concerning the political status of Taiwan and to open trade and other contacts. However, the United States continued to maintain official relations with the government of the Republic of China in Taiwan until 1979 when the U.S. broke off formal diplomatic relations with the Republic of China and established full diplomatic relations with the P.R.C.
After Nixon's visit, he spoke about what this meant for the two countries in the future. Nixon said: "This was the week that changed the world, as what we have said in that Communique is not nearly as important as what we will do in the years ahead to build a bridge across 16,000 miles and 22 years of hostilities which have divided us in the past. And what we have said today is that we shall build that bridge."
Richard Nixon later wrote about his international contributions and accomplishments. In his book Beyond Peace he wrote about the need for the United States to beat the competition in a world transformed by the collapse of the Communist bloc.
Nixon's visit became the subject of a 1987 opera written by composer John Adams entitled "Nixon in China." I found an excerpt from it, which I've included below:
On the trip, Nixon met several times with Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai, including visits to the Great Wall, Hangzhou, and Shanghai. At the conclusion of his trip, the United States and the PRC Governments issued the Shanghai Communiqué, a statement of their foreign policy views, National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger announced that the U.S. also intended to pull all its forces out of the island of Taiwan. In the communiqué, both nations pledged to work toward the full normalization of diplomatic policy.
The U.S. acknowledged the notion that all Chinese on both sides of the Taiwan Strait maintain that there is only one China. Nixon and the U.S. government reaffirmed their interests in a peaceful settlement of the Taiwan question agreed by the Chinese themselves. The statement enabled the U.S. and PRC to temporarily set aside the "crucial question obstructing the normalization of relations" concerning the political status of Taiwan and to open trade and other contacts. However, the United States continued to maintain official relations with the government of the Republic of China in Taiwan until 1979 when the U.S. broke off formal diplomatic relations with the Republic of China and established full diplomatic relations with the P.R.C.
After Nixon's visit, he spoke about what this meant for the two countries in the future. Nixon said: "This was the week that changed the world, as what we have said in that Communique is not nearly as important as what we will do in the years ahead to build a bridge across 16,000 miles and 22 years of hostilities which have divided us in the past. And what we have said today is that we shall build that bridge."
Richard Nixon later wrote about his international contributions and accomplishments. In his book Beyond Peace he wrote about the need for the United States to beat the competition in a world transformed by the collapse of the Communist bloc.
Nixon's visit became the subject of a 1987 opera written by composer John Adams entitled "Nixon in China." I found an excerpt from it, which I've included below: