However, pundits admit the original Shanghai Communique might not provide much guidance for the challenges of today. LORD: There were several very comfortable chairs we sat in, with tea served in between. According to Shelley Rigger, a Taiwan expert and a political scientist at Davidson College in North Carolina, the need to balance the power of the rising Soviet Union brought Beijing and Washington together. Both men were aware of the historic significance of what they were doing, says Thomas, and they were both showmen in their own way.. 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. But Nixon saw the China opening as essential to his re-election bid the following year and he decided Kissinger should go ahead with the trip as "we've got to make the big plays now". The resulting document that was issued on the last day of Nixon's China trip in February 1972, would become known as the Shanghai Communique. LOPEZ: Yeah. The pair and their aides worked hard and spent more than 11 hours negotiating through seven drafts of the communique. [22], The Chinese agreed to a peaceful settlement of the Taiwan question. So, the fact that Nixon, as president, would be willing to embark in outreach to Beijing came as a surprise. 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. RUWITCH: But the chairman did do the meeting, putting a huge stamp of approval on the controversial visit, and setting the tone in a way that only Mao could do. Every country has its landmark tourist attractions, and China is no exception. On July 15, 1971, the President announced on live television that he would visit the PRC the following year.[2]. Although Nixon met with Chairman Mao Zedong only once during the visit, the two had a meaningful dialogue on philosophic problems in the US-China relationship. The next morning, February 21, at 7 am the Nixons left Guam for Shanghai. 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. When Kissinger presented the first draft communique to Zhou, it was rejected immediately after the Chinese premier checked with Mao. Nixon did not shift the Wests policy toward Communist China; it was already happening. We strive for accuracy and fairness. 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. Resolving the Vietnam War was a particularly important factor. President Richard Nixon and his US entourage, along with Zhou Enlai and Jiang Qing, at a performance of "The Red Detachment of Women" in February 1972. 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. For two decades, my grandparents had been afraid to get in touch, lest it cause further harm to my uncles. Kazushi Minami - Why did Mao Shake Hands with Nixon? Cambridge, MA 02138, 2022 The President and Fellows of Harvard College, International Legal Studies & Opportunities, Syllabi, Exam and Course Evaluation Archive, Sign Up for the Harvard Law Today Newsletter, Consumer Information (ABA Required Disclosures). WU: I think the discussion between the two sides kind of gave Beijing the reassurance that over time, this issue could be handled in a way satisfactory for Beijing. LORD: Mao kept deflecting Nixon's efforts to engage in substantive exchanges. 2023, A&E Television Networks, LLC. [24], Nixon and his aides carefully planned the trip to have the biggest possible impact on television audiences in the United States. Mark Wu: On July 15, 1971, President Nixon shocked the world by announcing that he was planning to visit the PRC the next year. 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. During the ensuing two decades, various factions in the party would fight over whether economic and political reform was necessary. As Mark suggests, there are and will be areas of profound disagreement, given important differences in values. [28] The Beijing-Washington hotline was later created in 2007. From February 21 to 28, 1972, U.S. President Richard Nixon traveled to Beijing, Hangzhou, and Shanghai. It is part of the Wilson Center's History and Public Policy Program. How have US-China talks failed and succeeded in recent years? Pete Millwood - No, Not Only Nixon Could Go to China. The Shanghai Tower is the tallest structure in China. The Soviets, who previously rejected calls for limiting their nuclear arsenal, changed their tune when Nixon reopened talks with China. WU XINBO: Before Nixon's visit, the U.S. policy on Taiwan issue was kind of one China, one Taiwan - or two China. From February 21 to 28, 1972, U.S. President Richard Nixon traveled to Beijing, Hangzhou, and Shanghai. [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. [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. History alone does not provide direct answers to these critical questions. The U.K., West Germany, Japan, and Australia quickly switched their diplomatic recognition in the months following the Nixon visit, even though the U.S. would not formally do so until 1979. Before his election as president in 1968, former Vice President Richard Nixon hinted at establishing a new relationship with the PRC. And it kept its defense treaty with Taiwan intact. 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. They also shook hands with each other, the photograph of which is probably the most famous image to come out of the trip. 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'd probably like the U.S. out of Asia. Harvard Law School provides unparalleled opportunities to study law with extraordinary colleagues in a rigorous, vibrant, and collaborative environment. 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 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. "The secondary contradiction between the US and China was set aside so that both could focus on the primary contradiction," Rigger said. We still suffer from the illusion that the U.S. can successfully lead the West in a strong unified response to China, when in fact, our allies historically have been generally more willing to placate Beijing. The following list is the most famous Chinese landmarks, which . It has statues of Nixon and Zhou Enlai, a video documentary and artifacts, like a tin of panda cigarettes from a banquet. Former President Richard Nixon's weeklong 1972 China visit provides one blueprint. Despite their shared Communist ideology, there was plenty of mistrust between the PRC and the Soviet Union. Potala Palace The Potala Place in Lhasa was home to centuries of Dalai Lamas until the current Dalai Lama fled Tibet during the 1959 uprising. SHELLEY RIGGER: The Taiwanese absolutely saw this process as a betrayal. The History and Public Policy Programmakes public the primary source record of 20th and 21st century international history from repositories around the world, facilitates scholarship based on those records, and uses these materials to provide context for classroom, public, and policy debates on global affairs. The aftermath of the Watergate scandal later in 1972 led Nixon to deprioritize further diplomatic efforts with the PRC. William P. Alford 77 is the Jerome A. and Joan L. Cohen Professor of Law and director of the East Asian Legal Studies Program. The media presented Nixon communicating with Chinese government officials, attending dinners, and being accorded tours with other people of influence. On February 21, 1972, Air Force One landed in Beijing. Great Hall of the People, Tiananmen Square, Beijing. 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. HLT: What have been the implications of that trip for Taiwan? Wu: The phrase Nixon goes to China is overused to describe all sorts of political events where individuals flip positions and bring their followers along. [3], Improved relations with the Soviet Union and the PRC are often cited as the most successful diplomatic achievements of Nixon's presidency. 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. Alford: Professionally and personally, I have been a beneficiary of the trip. If we scratch away the theatrics, The Week that Changed the World looks less momentous than many have portrayed it. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! "This sets it on a collision course with the US, especially as China aims to become the prominent, if not dominant, power. How could Mao pull off such a stunt after two decades of intense anti-US propaganda? The trip would begin a new period of Chinese-American relations. What is not well understood about it? Richard M. Nixon that were revealed following the arrest of five burglars at Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters in the Watergate office-apartment-hotel complex in Washington, D.C., on June 17, 1972. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. A 1975 evaluation from senior leader Geng Biao, in contrast, said that Nixon visited China because his policy of isolating China had become bankrupt and that China had allowed Nixons visit, not in the slightest due to positive feelings toward the US.. 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. After 4 hours in the air, the Nixons arrived in Shanghai. What Lessons Can We Learn from The Week that Changed the World?. Alford: It also irks me that Nixon is seen as a global strategic genius. It has thrived economically and politically. Nixon in China, opera in three acts by John Adams (with an English libretto by Alice Goodman), which premiered at the Houston Grand Opera in 1987. Instructing the rest of his envoy to wait onboard the plane, Nixon descended the stairway first with his wife Pattywho wore a long red coat, a color of great significance to the PRCand eagerly extended his hand to greet the PRC premier. Before the US president left China, the Nixon and Zhou teams hammered out an agreement between the United States and China known as the Shanghai Communique a document that outlined both individual and common interests, articulated a One-China policy that would redefine cross-strait and US-Taiwan relations, and called upon both countries to work together toward diplomatic normalization. (SOUNDBITE OF J LORENZO'S "RAIN ON LEAF"). In a meeting with Taiwan's military leaders on February 26, a day before the issuance of the landmark China-US joint communique in Shanghai, Chiang told the generals that Taiwan must have a new . The United Kingdom, an Integrating Europe, and the NPT Negotiations, The Jupiter Missiles and the Endgame of the Cuban Missile Crisis: A Matter of Great Secrecy, We Are the Ones Who Manage the Affairs of the People: The Kuomintang Party School and its Legacy on both sides of the Taiwan Strait after 1949, Additional Radio Liberty Documents Now Online, Vietnams Struggles against Chinese Spies, American Spies, and Enemy Ideological Attacks, Cooperation between the North Korean and Polish Security Apparatuses in the 1980s, Hyundai Motor-Korea Foundation Center for Korean History and Public Policy, Environmental Change and Security Program, North Korea International Documentation Project, Nuclear Proliferation International History Project, Kissinger Institute on China and the United States, The Middle East and North Africa Workforce Development Initiative, Refugee and Forced Displacement Initiative, Science and Technology Innovation Program, Wahba Institute for Strategic Competition, Chinese Communist Party wanted when it allowed Nixon, business, military, cultural, and people-to-people ties could flourish, 1975 evaluation from senior leader Geng Biao, Zhou Enlai and the U.S. table tennis team. I think its only one of a series of contingent events that altered the course of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Yafeng Xia - Negotiating the Return of Civilians: Chinese Perception, Tactics and Objectives at the First Fourteen Meetings of the Sino-American Ambassadorial Talks. Harvard Law Today: This is the 50th anniversary of Richard Nixons trip to China. She, by the way, remembers Nixons visit to her hometown of Hangzhou during which all but selected individuals were ordered to stay inside. [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. HLT: How would you characterize U.S.-PRC relations these days? [citation needed]. 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). RUWITCH: Washington didn't agree to switch diplomatic relations right away, though. 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. In the aftermath of the Chinese civil war, the communists had captured mainland China and declared the founding of the People's Republic in 1949. And while Taiwans democratization is predominantly attributable to domestic factors, I do think a secondary consideration has been to distinguish itself from the PRC internationally. [33] Deng met with then-sitting President Jimmy Carter and ex-President Nixon at a state dinner in the White House.[34][35]. Whats your assessment of that? 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. Wu: No doubt the reversal of U.S. foreign policy toward the PRC in the 1970s will be seen as an important historical inflection point. On the morning of February 21, 1972, US President Richard Nixon landed in the Peoples Republic of China. 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. But its fate is as unresolved as ever. 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. Russia's war against Ukraine has largely overshadowed the 50th anniversary of Nixon's landmark trip to China in 1972, which established the basis for a normalization of relations between the two powers. As defined by the Oxford University Press, a landmark is a notable structure or characteristic of a landscape that allows you to decipher the location you are in. [8] Two decades before becoming president Herbert Hoover lived in China as a mining manager from 1899 to 1901,[9] being also somewhat proficient in Mandarin. 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. Although fictional, it illustrates how the Nixon visit impacted the subsequent lives of numerous Chinese American families. It was described as "a masterpiece of undercover work" by the late Harvard professor Roderick MacFarquhar. "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. 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 . And at the end of it, he had this to say. Nixon's visit played a role in leading to the September 1972 Japan-China Joint Communiqu. HLT: Why was the trip, and the agreement coming out of it, significant? 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. The visitwasa visual spectacle for the US President, his entourage, and much of the rest of the world, which closely watched the American leaders travels inside the world's largest communist country. The normalization of ties culminated in 1979, when the U.S. established full diplomatic relations with the PRC. Kissinger, who had just emerged from the glittering success of the first visit, also took Nixon's Air Force One, the "Spirit of '76". The Great Hall of the People is the landmark on the back of the 100 Yuan banknote. 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. 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. SCMP China Series: 50 years since Nixon visited China. But over time, Taiwan has itself become more important, as well as democratic, and China's strategic and territorial goals have become more forcefully asserted and politically articulated," Magnus said. Zhou challenged Kissinger, who appeared more interested in a Soviet-style communique that highlighted areas of agreement despite their divergent views on most issues. President Nixon meets with his National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger, en route to China, 1972. 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. Fifty years after Nixons history-making journey, Harvard Law Today turned to two China experts to understand its significance, both then and now. But talk of Taiwan would have to wait. RUWITCH: At the Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, Calif., there's a room covering the February 1972 China trip. 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". Chen Jian - From Mao to Deng: Chinas Changing Relations with the United States. Nevertheless, Mao felt well enough to insist to his officials that he would meet with Nixon upon his arrival. But as the tumultuous 1960s came to a close, the Nixon administration was facing several major challenges: a disastrous war in Vietnam, social strife at home, and stalled nuclear arms negotiations with the Soviets. 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. Churchill and India: Manipulation or Betrayal? In fact, Nixon was scheduled to travel to meet Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev shortly after completing his visit to China. RUWITCH: Wu Xinbo of Fudan University says that hasn't happened. Domestic events in China that followed the visit, such as Deng Xiaoping prevailing in the leadership struggle, will likely prove even more important. You should at least consider visiting all of these seven tourist landmarks: the Great Wall on Mao Loyalty Ridge, the Forbidden City, the Terracotta Army, the best giant panda base, 20-Yuan Hill on the Li River, Mount Everest, and Dunhuang Mogao Caves.. The visit helped to break several decades of US-PRC hostility and launched a new cooperative course in the relationship that generally persisted until the end of the Cold War, if not longer. A masterful account of one of the most dramatic moments in American diplomatic history, President Richard Nixon's visit to China in 1972. Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? It was also the subject of a PBS documentary film, American Experience: Nixon's China Game. What has the Nixon visit meant to you? RUWITCH: The Soviet Union may be gone and the war in Vietnam long over. inflation. As Kissinger himself explained during his second China trip: "The trouble is that we disagree, not that we don't understand each other. RUWITCH: He says the U.S. wanted help ending the war in Vietnam and a reduced threat of confrontation with China. In the words of one of his ambassadors, Nixons eight-day visit in February of 1972 was the week that changed the world and substantially altered the balance of power between the United States, China and the Soviet Union. "I don't think anyone set aside ideological rivalry; instead, they both were practising Mao's Theory of Contradictions," she said. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Instead they, including Kissinger himself, still largely saw the Taiwan issue as more of a practical obstacle rather than China's "central question of concern", as Zhou had claimed. HLT: It is generally portrayed as Nixon changing the world indeed, leading to the phrase a Nixon goes to China moment. [25], John T. Downey and Richard Fecteau, CIA operatives who were held captive in China from November 1952, were released after Nixon's visit to China. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. On February 22, 1972, the Peoples Daily printed a picture of Chairman Mao shaking hands with Richard Nixon. 1. But there was another American at the meeting that day in Mao's cluttered study. After reading the memoirs of Henry Kissinger, who had served as both national security adviser and . [citation needed], Max Frankel of The New York Times received the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting for his coverage of the event.[25]. In the aftermath of the Chinese civil war, the communists had captured mainland China and declared the founding of the Peoples Republic in 1949. This fostered sustained economic growth. A memorable protest from Enver Hoxha of Albania, for example, asked Mao Zedong to reconsider his plan to host the US President. And what we have said today is that we shall build that bridge. While very much a product of the end of history hubris here that reached its apogee with the collapse of the Soviet Union, that attitude seemed to me at that time to be woefully inattentive to Chinas history and contemporary circumstances and not especially discerning about our own country or the course of world history. Mark Wu is the Henry L. Stimson Professor of Law. 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. Rigger said Kissinger might have led Zhou Enlai to believe the US would not stand in the way of China having what it wanted with respect to Taiwan. Kissinger and his assistant Winston Lord were also present. Deputy Director, History and Public Policy Program, 2023 The Wilson Center. The surprise announcement was the result of months of top-secret diplomacy between the Nixon White House and Beijing. No. 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. It's been 50 years since President Nixon went to China, a trip that changed the world's balance of power. Wu: The visit resulted in the issuance of the Shanghai Communiqu, which provided the pathway for the Carter administration to normalize relations with the Peoples Republic. Later that decade, I made my first of what became scores of trips to China that have informed my research and teaching greatly. Today, the relationship between the People's Republic of China and the United States of America is now one of the most important and vital bilateral relationships in the world, and every successive U.S. president, except for Jimmy Carter and Joe Biden (although he has already visited when he was Vice President), has visited the PRC. Fifty years ago this week, President Richard Nixon made his famous trip to China. [31], Nixon's visit played a role in opening China to U.S. trade eventually putting downward pressure on U.S. Also, a "Nixon to China" moment has since become a metaphor to refer to the ability of a politician with an unassailable reputation among their supporters for representing and defending their values to take actions that would draw their criticism and even opposition if taken by someone without those credentials.