Following Nixon's visit to China in 1972 and until the tumultuous events of 1989, China and the United States engaged in a dialogue on, and cooperated in resolving, a range of global issues and problems. For other Digital Archive collections on US-China relations, see Sino-American Confrontation, 1949-1971, and Sino-US Ambassadorial Talks, 1955-1970.
What is the meaning of China’s rise? What are its consequences? Are China, the rising power and the world’s second largest economy, and the United States, the dominant power in the world, likely to chart a perilous course toward the “Thucydides’s Trap”?
An overview of Richard Nixon’s February 1972 visit to China and associated Wilson Center publications and Digital Archive resources.
According to Pete Millwood, it is time to put to rest the myth that Nixon alone could pursue rapprochement with China; other American politicians advocated engagement—and were even invited to China before Nixon.
On February 22, 1972, the People’s Daily printed a picture of Chairman Mao shaking hands with Richard Nixon. How could Mao pull off such a stunt after two decades of intense anti-US propaganda?
Zhou Yi analyzes a speech made by a senior Chinese official at an unexpected venue - a tourism conference - in March 1975 to decode broad shifts in Chinese foreign policy at the end of the Mao era.
If we scratch away the theatrics, “The Week that Changed the World” looks less momentous than many have portrayed it, writes Federico Pachetti.
