Home » U.S.-China relations deteriorated Nixon 50 years ago a prophecy | Nixon’s visit to China | Watergate incident | Mao Zedong

U.S.-China relations deteriorated Nixon 50 years ago a prophecy | Nixon’s visit to China | Watergate incident | Mao Zedong

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U.S.-China relations deteriorated Nixon 50 years ago a prophecy | Nixon’s visit to China | Watergate incident | Mao Zedong

[Epoch Times, February 22, 2022](Reported by Epoch Times reporters Ning Haizhong and Luo Ya) The late former US President Nixon’s historic visit to China 50 years ago ended the mutual isolation between the US and China. “Icebreaker”. But Nixon did not believe the good bilateral relationship would last, predicting that “in fifty years we will be adversaries,” recalled the U.S. officials involved in overseeing the trip that year. Experts believe that the deterioration of US-China relations is rooted in different values ​​and will continue to tighten in the future, and Russia will not really help the CCP.

On a gray winter morning in February 1972, Nixon and his party arrived in Beijing. China was in the midst of the Cultural Revolution at the time, and slogans such as “Down with U.S. imperialism” were written on street signs.

According to the declassified documents and memoirs of various parties, Nixon chose to visit China at this time because of the fierce competition between the United States and the Soviet Union, and because of the Vietnam War, which led to a high domestic anti-war sentiment. Nixon, who wanted to be re-elected president but was involved in the Watergate scandal at home, hoped to get rid of his own predicament by improving relations with Beijing to check and balance the Soviet Union.

In November 1970, Zhou Enlai sent a message through Romania, which had good relations with China and the United States, that Nixon was welcome to Beijing.

By then, China and the Soviet Union, once communist allies, had parted ways and even clashed on the border. At that time, the CCP not only faced threats from the Soviet Union, but also had no friends in the world except for some poor countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. On the other hand, the domestic economy was on the verge of bankruptcy due to the Cultural Revolution, and Mao’s “closest comrade-in-arms” Lin Biao fled. The plane crash in Mongolia caused a sharp decline in the prestige of Mao and the CCP.

The 1972 meeting between Mao Zedong, the former leader of the Communist Party of China, and US President Richard Nixon was called a historic meeting.

Nixon’s visit to China allowed the CCP regime, which was on the verge of collapse, to survive. At the same time, it also changed the US government’s consistently tough policy toward China after the Korean War, and also allowed the CCP to join the United Nations. This incident not only changed the triangular relationship between China, the US and the Soviet Union, but also had a major impact on the later political trends of mainland China and Taiwan.

Although Nixon’s China visit was later hailed as his signature foreign policy achievement, he also won the election after visiting China, was eventually impeached over the Watergate scandal, and resigned in August 1974, becoming the first in American history. resigned president.

Nixon’s “prophecy” before his visit to China: We will be rivals in 50 years

Compared with the Nixon era 50 years ago, the current US-China relationship has already undergone great changes, but it also corresponds to a “prophecy” of Nixon back then.

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To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Nixon’s visit to China, “The Wire china” published memories of some of the U.S. officials during that trip shared by the Nixon Presidential Library. The article disclosed that Dwight Chapin, who was the head of protocol for Nixon’s visit to China, recalled in “The President’s Man” that the president said before the visit: “We are going to China, because in 50 years we will become Adversaries, we have to be able to talk to each other.”

Mao Zedong died in 1976, a few years after Nixon’s visit to China. Two years later, the CCP, led by Deng Xiaoping, had to unwind the crumbling economic system, dubbed a mixture of crony capitalism and one-party dictatorship, which continues to this day.

After Xi Jinping came to power, he engaged in wolf warrior diplomacy, and Beijing’s foreign expansion was regarded as a threat by the United States and its allies. China is trying to control East China Sea islands also claimed by Japan and South China Sea islands claimed by Southeast Asian nations.

The Chinese military has sent more and more fighter jets to conduct training missions in Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone. The United States provided Taiwan with military equipment and warned China not to try to seize Taiwan by force.

Sino-US relations continue to deteriorate due to issues such as trade, the new crown epidemic, and human rights.

When former U.S. President Donald Trump was in office, U.S.-China relations turned against past Western policies of appeasement toward the CCP. In recent years, U.S.-China relations have become increasingly confrontational over issues such as trade, human rights, and technology. U.S. politicians have long believed that the old model of dealing with the CCP may be outdated.

In 2020, when Secretary of State Pompeo visited the Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, he quoted Nixon’s article in 1967 and pointed out that Nixon’s strategy of communicating with the CCP had changed over time. And the special economic treatment of its regime, in exchange for the CCP’s refusal to enter Western countries and its disregard for human rights.

After Biden took office, the CCP was seen as a competitor.

U.S. President Joe Biden holds a video summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the White House on November 15, 2021. (MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)

Yan Jianfa, deputy chief executive of the Taiwan Democracy Foundation and professor of the Department of Business Administration at Jianxing University of Science and Technology, told The Epoch Times that Nixon’s visit to China is still valuable for the development of US-China relations today, but the deterioration of the relationship between the two countries is mainly because What the CCP wants to go is an autocratic system in which the party leads the government and the party controls everything, while the United States is going to open, pluralistic, and balanced capitalism. These are two completely different values ​​and value systems, including the social and political system. Difficult to compromise, “unless it falls the Communist Party”.

But he believes that China does not seem to have the possibility of adopting a two-party system. “Just like the former US Vice President Mike Pence separated the CCP from China at that time, unless the CCP system is dismantled, the two countries will have peace. Getting along is difficult.”

The United States has implemented an appeasement policy against the CCP since 1978. It took decades to understand a regime, and then the perception became more and more negative.

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“In the past, the United States thought that I was dealing with you because I hoped that you would transform into peace, freedom, respect for democracy and human rights. As a result, the problem became more and more serious, and it was like an accomplice, because after helping it develop its economy, it has more technology and money to come. Suppress civil democrats.” Yan Jianfa said.

Yan Jianfa believes that the tacit understanding between the two parties in the United States on the issue of the CCP is getting higher and higher, mainly because of public opinion. The next midterm election, the 2024 general election, is coming soon. He believes that part of the reason for Biden’s toughness today is that he was forced to go by public opinion.

“Whether it is military, economic, or strategic. Although the relationship between the United States and China is sometimes tight and sometimes loose, the general trend is to shrink from the tight side. This is fundamentally due to the influence of the CCP system and the political system itself.” Yan Jianfa said.

Analysis: Russia will not really help the CCP The United States is very clear that the CCP is the biggest opponent

The recent strengthening of ties between Beijing and Moscow has sparked concerns in the United States and Europe. But experts believe that Russia-China relations are not stable.

On February 4, the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics, Putin and Xi Jinping announced the establishment of a new strategic partnership between Russia and China. They also unveiled a broader economic cooperation plan.

Russia has amassed more than 150,000 troops around Ukraine for a possible invasion of the country, although Ukraine will not join NATO anytime soon.

On February 21, Putin signed a decree recognizing the independence of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and the Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR). The United States and the European Union responded immediately. Biden will impose trade restrictions and financing sanctions on the separatist region of eastern Ukraine. European Union leaders condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to recognize the independence of Ukraine’s two pro-Russian separatist regions.

Earlier, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said via video at the Munich Security Conference in Germany on the 19th that Ukraine’s sovereignty should be “respected and maintained”, but he also sided with Russia, claiming that NATO’s eastward expansion is destabilizing the European continent.

File photo of Xi Jinping’s meeting with Putin. (Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)

Hu Ping, honorary editor-in-chief of “Beijing Spring”, told The Epoch Times that the United States and Russia have some very direct conflicts, mainly reflected in Ukraine and the Middle East. Now the United States has to devote considerable energy to dealing with Russia’s problems. But the United States is still very clear that the CCP is its biggest opponent.

Hu Ping said that the CCP is not actually willing to take a tougher stance toward the United States, and is not willing to go so far in supporting Russia that it is opposed to the West as a whole. For example, on the Ukraine issue, the CCP only dares to make a clear statement on its opposition to the eastward expansion of NATO.

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Hu Ping mentioned one of the reasons why the CCP is not good at handling the Ukraine issue: “Because Putin adopted the recognition of the independent status of the two republics in Eastern Ukraine. The two republics declared their independence in 2014, and Russia did not recognize them at that time. Now Russia admits it, and says that Eastern Ukraine has been Russia’s territory since ancient times. The CCP likes to hear this, and it can use this reason to annex Taiwan, but Eastern Ukraine is independent from Ukraine through the so-called self-determination of citizens. The CCP will I dare not express my position publicly, because Taiwan can also use the method of citizens’ self-determination as the basis for declaring independence, what reason do you have for opposing the CCP?”

Yan Jianfa, the deputy executive director of the Taiwan Democracy Foundation, believes that Russia will not really help the CCP. He said that although the United States is not “alliance with Russia to form a system”, it is “tolerating Russia’s system”, that is, it tolerates Russia to restrain the CCP.

“The United States is restrained in these conflicts between Russia and Ukraine. Putin also knows that Biden is focusing on the Indo-Pacific and will not focus its forces on confronting Russia, so it is taking advantage of it and advancing step by step. Putin is also very clear , the CCP is now the biggest imaginary enemy of the United States, and he doesn’t want to help him (Xi Jinping) stop the bullet.” Yan Jianfa believes that Putin will benefit from China, but it is impossible to rely on Xi Jinping.

“Actually, there is a little tacit understanding between the United States and Russia. Biden and Putin really have a little understanding. One day, if China’s situation is not good, it is very likely that Russia will support the United States in turn, or support Europe and Ukraine, because historically The Soviet Union often does this kind of thing, and it often does this kind of thing to China.”

He believes that Russia this time is equivalent to awakening Europe and the United States, but Putin probably knows when it is time to stop, and after Putin talks with Biden next, he may slowly withdraw from the focus of history. Then the CCP will face a new wave of pressure.

In the fall of this year, the CCP plans to hold the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. It is expected that Xi Jinping, who has served as the leader of the CCP for two terms, is seeking a third term.

Yan Jianfa said that the changes in the U.S. strategy are becoming more and more unfavorable to the CCP. Of course, the U.S. still talks about cooperation and competition. “Because there is no cooperation, how can we force him to realize the second-stage trade negotiations?” But competition and hostility are separated by a fine line. Relationships can only get tighter. “It seems that there is a little question whether Xi Jinping can smoothly or gloriously ascend to the peak of power.”

Responsible editor: Gao Jing#

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