Chi Wang

Opinion | Nixon in China: 50 years on, pessimism over Sino-US ties might again prove unfounded

On the 50th anniversary of the historic visit, it is tempting to view the US-China relationship with apprehension, amid tensions over human rights and trade

Looking back, however, nearly every milestone anniversary of Nixon’s visit appeared similarly fraught, and yet the relationship has managed to endure

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Chi Wang

Published: 3:30am, 23 Feb 2022Updated: 5:19am, 23 Feb 2022

It is rare to come across a description of US president Richard Nixon’s 1972 visit to China that does not use the words “historic” or “groundbreaking”. The phrase “Nixon goes to China” has entered the American political lexicon, which journalist David Ignatius defined as “a moment in which a leader reverses his past positions to do something that is shocking but beneficial”.

For the United States, the news that Nixon, whose entire political career had been built on rooting out communism, was announcing his intention to visit “Communist China” was indeed shocking. But it came as the US public, weary after years of a fruitless war in Vietnam, was eager for a change in approach to East Asia.

Nixon himself had indicated his shifting views in his 1967 article in Foreign Affairs, “Asia After Viet Nam”, arguing that China could not stay outside the “family of nations” forever.

In fact, Nixon began considering the possibility of opening to China in 1968. During a visit to Taiwan, Nixon asked my friend- and future US ambassador to China – Arthur W. Hummel Jnr why we did not have any dialogue with Beijing and how we could go about starting one.

The diplomatic estrangement between the US and China after the establishment of the People’s Republic in 1949 had only been infrequently broken via negotiations in Paris which had proved largely ineffective.

Nixon ultimately went about his opening through a different, more secret channel. It was through Pakistan that Nixon’s national security adviser, Henry Kissinger, secretly entered China in July 1971 and set the stage for Nixon’s trip seven months later.