


president, except for Jimmy Carter and Joe Biden (although he has already visited when he was Vice President), has visited the PRC. 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. Repercussions of the Nixon visit continue to this day near-immediate results included a significant shift in the Cold War balance, driving an ideological wedge between the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China, resulting in significant Soviet concessions and its eventual fall. Nixon dubbed his visit "the week that changed the world", a descriptor that continues to echo in the political lexicon. Throughout the week the President and his senior advisers engaged in substantive discussions with the PRC leadership, including a meeting with CCP chairman Mao Zedong, while First Lady Pat Nixon toured schools, factories and hospitals in the cities of Beijing, Hangzhou and Shanghai with the large American press corps in tow. 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. On July 15, 1971, the President announced on live television that he would visit the PRC the following year.
#NIXON VISITS CHINA SERIES#
After a series of these overtures by both countries, Kissinger flew on secret diplomatic missions to Beijing in 1971, where he met with Chinese premier Zhou Enlai. Early in his first term, Nixon, through his National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger, sent subtle overtures hinting at warmer relations to the government of the PRC. Before his election as president in 1968, former Vice President Richard Nixon hinted at establishing a new relationship with the PRC. When the Chinese Communist Party gained power over mainland China in 1949 and the Kuomintang retreated to the island of Taiwan after the de facto end of the Chinese Civil War, the United States continued to recognize the Republic of China (ROC) as the sole government of China, now based out of Taipei.
#NIXON VISITS CHINA FULL#
established full diplomatic relations with the PRC. The normalization of ties culminated in 1979, when the U.S. Nixon visited the PRC to gain more leverage over relations with the Soviet Union, following the Sino-Soviet split. president had visited the PRC Nixon's arrival in Beijing ended 25 years of no communication or diplomatic ties between the two countries and was the key step in normalizing relations between the U.S. The seven-day official visit to three Chinese cities was the first time a U.S. The 1972 visit by United States President Richard Nixon to the People's Republic of China was an important strategic and diplomatic overture that marked the culmination of the Nixon administration's resumption of harmonious relations between the United States of America and the People's Republic of China after years of diplomatic isolation.
