Spirit of outreach by US leader in 1972 can be tapped for China ties, experts say
Chairman Mao Zedong (left) talks with visiting US President Richard Nixon in Beijing on Feb 21, 1972. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
Richard Nixon's trip to China in 1972 offers lessons that remain relevant amid the tense relations between China and the United States, analysts said.
This week marks the 50th year of the historic visit by the US president that led to the normalization of relations between the two countries. Analysts said that by reaching out to China, Nixon proved that "isolationist strategies" will not benefit the two sides.
According to Joe Thomas Karackattu, associate professor and faculty in-charge of the China Studies Centre at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, the visit was "a critical moment in terms of abandoning rigidities in the Cold War's ideological camps".
Karackattu said the meeting between the Chinese and US leaders also signaled to the world that "isolationist strategies were not useful in furthering the larger cause of people's lives".
Peter Ngeow Chow Bing, director of the Institute of China Studies at the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur, said Nixon's visit had "a major impact" on global geopolitics, noting that the US' decision to engage with China rather than isolating it was the "right choice".
He cited Southeast Asian countries, among China's closest neighbors, and how this visit also encouraged them to reach out to China. Malaysia established diplomatic ties with China in 1974, while Thailand and the Philippines followed suit a year later. "That legacy (of engaging with China) is still …relevant today," Ngeow said.
Relations between the two countries have soured in the past few years. The US-initiated trade conflict, the so-called diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics, and provocations over China's Taiwan and Xinjiang have frayed bilateral relations.
Ngeow said China-US relations have been through a "drastic transformation" since the 1972 visit. But he believes the spirit of that historic visit needs "to be respected" and that both countries have to find a way to manage the differences that will stabilize the bilateral relationship.
Austin Ong, program manager of the Integrated Development Studies Institute think tank in Manila, said that despite their differences, both Nixon and Chairman Mao Zedong realized their "best hope" to navigate the challenges of their times was to "work together and manage their differences".
'Golden decade'
This, he said, ushered in a golden decade in China-US relations that benefited the peoples of both countries and those of other nations.
Karackattu said bilateral relations have been beneficial for both sides as seen in the rise of their trade and economic ties.
China is the US' top trading partner. According to the Office of the US Trade Representative, trade in goods between the two countries amounted to $559.2 billion in 2020, while trade in services came to an estimated $56 billion.
But Karackattu said Nixon's visit was not the sole factor that strengthened the relationship between the two countries. He said China and the US "invested years of effort" to promote people-to-people ties and trade and commerce.
"Those efforts shaped the future of the bilateral relationship at the turn of this century, and in many ways attenuated the ambiguity away from political opportunism around many important issues," he said.
Karackattu said the 1972 visit laid the foundation for a relationship that grew in strength from the iteration of economic interdependence over the next few decades.
"That yielded a certain kind of relationship. However, the choice of zero-sum strategic competition over economic interdependence, as has been practiced in recent years, has resulted in the downturn that we are seeing from the last few years. Only a change in approach can help reset the relationship," he said.
prime@chinadailyapac.com