Nixon's China's Visit and "Sino-U.S. Joint Communiqué"

Towards the end of the 1960s, President Nixon, after entering the White House, wanted to improve Sino-U.S. relations so as to increase U.S. assets by conducting a foreign policy of "maintaining the global balance". He stressed that U.S. policy in Asia has entered a dead alley and repeatedly expressed his desire to move in the direction of a "Sino-U.S. rapprochement" and taking the initiative through Pakistan and Romania to pass on messages to China. In the early 1970s, Chairman Mao Zedong and Premier Zhou Enlai, proceeding from the strategic requirements of adjusting the big triangular relations between China, the United States and the Soviet Union, sent out such messages through such means as requesting the American writer Edgar Snow to pass on the message and inviting the American Table Tennis Teams to visit China, to the effect that China is willing to have contact with the American side and to bring about a thaw in the statement of Sino-U.S. relations. On 21 April, the Chinese Government sent a verbal message to the U.S. Government on the U.S. proposal of holding a high-level dialogue between the two sides:" If the relations between China and the USA are to be restored fundamentally, the U.S. must withdraw all its armed forces from China's Taiwan and the Taiwan strait area. A solution to this crucial question can be found only through direct discussions between high level responsible persons of the two countries. Therefore, the Chinese Government reaffirms its willingness to receive publicly in Beijing a special envoy of the President of the U.S.(for instance, Mr. Kissinger) or the U.S. secretary of State or even the President of the U.S. himself for a direct meeting and discussions. "In his mid-May reply, President Nixon said that in order to solve the issues dividing the two countries and because of the importance he attached to the bilateral relations, he was prepared to visit Beijing for direct conversations with the leaders of the People's Republic of China and proposed a preliminary secret meeting between Kissinger and a high-level Chinese official in China. China agreed to such a proposal which led to Kissinger's secret visit to China from 9 to 11 July 1971. The two sides discussed the international situation and Sino-U.S. relations and reached agreement on a visit by President Nixon to China and made an announcement on 16 July. The announcement said, " Knowing of President Nixon's expressed desire to visit the People's Republic of China, Premier Zhou Enlai, on behalf of the Government of the People's Republic of China, has extended an invitation to President Nixon to visit China at an appropriate date before May 1972. President Nixon has accepted the invitation with pleasure".

On 21 February 1972, President Nixon and his party arrived in Beijing and paid a 7-day historic visit to China. During the visit, President Nixon met with Chairman Mao Zedong and held talks with Premier Zhou Enlai. The two sides exchanged views on the international situation and, in particular, on Sino-U.S. relations focussing on the Indo-China question and the Taiwan question.

After repeated consultations, the Chinese and the U.S. sides finally issued the Joint Communiqué in Shanghai (also known as the Shanghai Communiqué) on 28 February 1972.