RE: Nixon is the one who restored relations with China

Posted on: September 29, 2021 at 15:34:27 CT

When Carter took office in January 1977, a significant improvement in relations between Communist China and the United States seemed far from inevitable. Presidents before Nixon had failed to make significant progress in improving relations with the People’s Republic of China. President Nixon’s attempt to normalize relations with China during his second term had been frustrated by the Watergate scandal. The collapse of South Vietnam and the opposition of conservative Republicans created an inhospitable environment for pursuing normalization during Gerald Ford’s presidency; any policy shift that could be depicted as appeasing a longstanding communist enemy and abandoning a loyal, anti-communist ally generated significant political resistance.

Officials within the Carter administration debated how to normalize relations with China without damaging relations with the Soviet Union, China’s great rival within the international Communist movement. Nevertheless, Carter and his top aides agreed that the opportunity to normalize relations with China might be fleeting and should not be squandered.In the spring of 1978, Carter decided to proceed with normalization. A handful of top U.S. officials agreed upon instructions, which the President approved, that were sent to the U.S. negotiator Leonard Woodcock, the head of the U.S. Liaison Office in Beijing. By the terms of the agreement the two sides reached, the United States acknowledged “the Chinese position that there is but one China and Taiwan is part of China.” The United States declared its intention to abrogate the Mutual Defense Treaty between the United States and the Republic of China, originally signed in December 1954. Simultaneously, however, the United States declared in the Joint Communiqué that it would “maintain cultural, commercial, and other unofficial relations with the people of Taiwan.” In Carter’s address to the nation on December 15, 1978, he announced that in accordance with “the Shanghai communiqué, issued on President Nixon’s historic visit, we will continue to have an interest in the peaceful resolution of the Taiwan issue.” The Joint Communiqué stated that the United States would begin official diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China on January 1, 1979, and that the two countries would open Embassies on March 1.