Chi Wang

Opinion | How the Trump administration has misunderstood the lessons of Nixon, Kissinger and the past 50 years of US-China diplomacy

Decades of China engagement failed, according to Pompeo, because China did not liberalise as US leaders had anticipated

However, Nixon’s opening to China in 1972 had nothing to do with spreading democracy or free enterprise but was entirely about gaining the upper hand over the Soviets in the Cold War

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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library on July 23. Photo: Reuters

Chi Wang

Published: 1:30am, 9 Sep 2020Updated: 3:09am, 9 Sep 2020

With the party conventions over and the debates between Democratic nominee Joe Biden and incumbent Republican president Donald Trump looming, the 2020 US presidential campaign is about to enter its critical final stage. In light of the coronavirus pandemic, Trump and the Republican Party have sought to cast blame on China for the unprecedented crisis that has cost over 180,000 American lives, and millions more their jobs and economic security.

“Making China pay” has become a Republican rally cry for not only the presidential race, but the congressional races as well. Trump and his administration have gone as far as to recast the last 50 years of Sino-American relations as misguided.

China has been used as a political issue before – from the “who lost China” debate in the 1950s to Bill Clinton’s criticism of George H.W. Bush’s response to Tiananmen in the 1992 election. But, this time, Trump and his officials are going further.

In a speech at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library in July, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke critically of the US-China rapprochement 50 years after Nixon’s historic opening in 1972. Pompeo was careful not to malign Nixon at his namesake library but noted that the world was “much different” then.

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“We imagined engagement with China would produce a future with bright promise of comity and cooperation,” he said, but this did not come to fruition. The engagement strategy failed, according to Pompeo, because China did not liberalise as US presidents had anticipated.