A hinge point in modern history, the US president’s trip to China outflanked the USSR and helped bring Beijing out of international isolation.
‘We opened up for geopolitical, economic, security reasons, and we hoped – as an added plus – this would loosen up the Chinese political system. But engagement was not preconditioned on that.’
Joint statement released on last day of US president’s visit in 1972 is arguably the most important breakthrough agreement in the history of US-China relations.
In 1972 the first visit to the communist country by then-US president Richard Nixon is what Nixon described as “The week that changed the world.”
Lingling and Xingxing arrived in Washington in 1972 as a symbolic offering of friendship between the US and China, sparking panda fever around the world. As history has shown, the era of comity did not last, although the bears’ popularity has.
‘Finding ways to bring the two peoples together, we just have to look for them’ is the reminder, more than 50 years later.
Chiang Ching-kuo inherited his father’s ambitions to retake mainland China but Washington’s embrace of Beijing shattered those hopes.
The self-ruled island built itself into a powerhouse, first with cheaply manufactured products then as an indispensable player in the tech industry.
