I would hazard a guess that when people think of Richard Nixon, the first thing that comes to mind is typically Watergate, an incident so heinous that it often overshadows his shrewd foreign policy toward China.
After more than 20 years of virtually no contact between the U.S. and the People’s Republic of China, President Nixon visited Beijing in February 1972 to meet with Chinese leaders including Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai in an effort to improve relations. President Nixon famously called his visit “the week that changed the world." The U.S.-China relationship proved to be, and continues to be, a mutually beneficial relationship.
Despite the interdependence of the U.S. and China, the two nations are very suspicious of each other nowadays. Washington has made the assumption that China is on a quest for total hegemony in East Asia. Consequentially, President Obama has begun to place a greater emphasis on America's presence in East Asia. Beijing perceives this "Asia Pivot" as an imperialist plot to stifle China's rise. Whether or not America is on a quest to contain China, or more extremely, to exploit China, is a hot topic.
But what were Nixon's original intentions? Certainly the President of the United States and Mao (an ardent communist) were strange bedfellows.
After more than 20 years of virtually no contact between the U.S. and the People’s Republic of China, President Nixon visited Beijing in February 1972 to meet with Chinese leaders including Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai in an effort to improve relations. President Nixon famously called his visit “the week that changed the world." The U.S.-China relationship proved to be, and continues to be, a mutually beneficial relationship.
Despite the interdependence of the U.S. and China, the two nations are very suspicious of each other nowadays. Washington has made the assumption that China is on a quest for total hegemony in East Asia. Consequentially, President Obama has begun to place a greater emphasis on America's presence in East Asia. Beijing perceives this "Asia Pivot" as an imperialist plot to stifle China's rise. Whether or not America is on a quest to contain China, or more extremely, to exploit China, is a hot topic.
But what were Nixon's original intentions? Certainly the President of the United States and Mao (an ardent communist) were strange bedfellows.
Andrew Nathan, a professor at Columbia University, and Andrew Scobell, a political analyst for the RAND Corporation authored an interesting article about Beijing's fears argue, "In the Chinese view, Washington's slow rapprochement with Beijing was not born of idealism and generosity; instead it was pursued so that the United States could profit from China's economic opening by squeezing profits from U.S. investments, consuming cheap Chinese goods, and borrowing money to support the U.S. trade and fiscal deficits."
Yes, it would be very difficult to make the case that America's intentions were truly idealistic or altruistic. As realists, President Nixon and Dr. Kissinger believed that all states behave in a self-interested fashion, and as such, so should the United States.
On the other hand, the Chinese view fails to take into account the advantages for China of establishing relations with the United States. China was not a victim of the "week that changed the world"! The U.S.-PRC relationship has proven to be mutually beneficial.
It's interesting to see how people will twist history to support current policy. The concept that the United States made overtures to China in order to destroy China is a prime example. That view makes little sense in the context of Cold War history, but it is not difficult to see how it makes perfect sense in the context of modern-day Chinese nationalism.
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