Volta
Politics21 – 28 February 1972

Nixon’s Visit to China

Also called: Détente, Shanghai Communiqué

US President Nixon visited Beijing, met Mao Zedong and issued the Shanghai Communiqué. Sino-American rapprochement ushered the Cold War into an era of détente.

Nixon and Mao Zedong shake hands, Beijing, 21 February 1972
Nixon and Mao Zedong shake hands, Beijing, 21 February 1972

Series: Nixon White House Photographs, 1/20/1969 - 8/9/1974 Collection: White House Photo Office Collection (Nixon Administration), 1/20/1969 - 8/9/1974 · Public domain · Source

China and the Soviet Union fell out in the 1960s and even clashed on their border in 1969. Seeking to leave Vietnam, the US declared in the 1969 Nixon Doctrine that Asian nations should take charge of their own defence, and reached out to China to counter the Soviets. “Ping-pong diplomacy” and Kissinger’s secret visit followed in 1971, and that year the People’s Republic took China’s seat at the UN.

In February 1972 Nixon met Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai in Beijing and issued the Shanghai Communiqué; in May he signed the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I) with the Soviet Union. In this climate of détente the two Koreas issued the July 4 Joint Statement. The US and China established diplomatic relations in 1979.

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States and rulers at the time
United States — President Richard Nixon
People's Republic of China — Paramount leader Mao Zedong

People

  • Richard Nixon1913 – 1994

    leader · 37th US president (1969–1974) who issued the Nixon Doctrine, visited China and pursued détente, and withdrew US troops from Vietnam; he resigned over Watergate

  • Mao Zedong1893 – 1976

    related figure · Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party who won the civil war and founded the People’s Republic in 1949, and launched the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution

  • Zhou Enlai1898 – 1976

    diplomat · First premier of the People’s Republic of China (1949–1976), long in charge of diplomacy, who arranged Nixon’s 1972 visit

Before and after

Earlier
1969 Apollo 11 Moon Landing
Later
1988 Nordpolitik

Themes that include this event

  • The Cold War1945 – 1991

    From Yalta to the dissolution of the Soviet Union — half a century in which two blocs led by the US and the USSR divided the world