President Nixon picked up on this gesture. In 1971, he decided to invite the US table tennis team to visit China to “move the big ball with the small ball”. Chairman Mao met with Edgar Snow and his wife on the Tian’anmen Rostrum on October 1, 1970, sending a positive and friendly message to the US side. Estrangement persisted between China and the US from 1949 when the People’s Republic of China was founded to the early 1970s, and took some hard efforts to break. All things are difficult before they are easy. Therefore, the two leaders, with a masterly grasp of the shifting international landscape, put the interests of their nations and peoples before the differences in ideology and political system to end over two decades of antagonism and hostility, and opened the gate of China-US relations. President Nixon also envisaged building “a new and better world”. What he meant was that China and the US should take a strategic and long-term view of relations. Chairman Mao said in his meeting with President Nixon, we should talk about “philosophical issues”. President Nixon’s pragmatic diplomacy culminated in this monumental visit 50 years ago, and his legacy still serves as an important reference today.įirst, extraordinary strategic vision. It faithfully records the past journey, and gives us inspiration for the future. It was a week “that changed the whole world”.
The forces for peace were strengthened and the international strategic landscape was shifted. The week would be remembered also because that visit stood for the easing of relations between the East and the West. The week would be remembered for the issuance of Shanghai Communique, which started the normalization of China-US relations.
The week would be remembered in history, as the handshake between Premier Zhou Enlai and President Nixon at Beijing Capital Airport came over the vastest ocean in the world, breaking the ice of more than 20 years of no communication. With the idea that “we came in peace for all mankind”, President Nixon visited China, a trip he considered as sacred and lofty as the moon landing of mankind. The week of February 21 to 28, 1972 would always be etched in the annals of history. Kissinger, the family of President Nixon and all those who have been supporting and promoting the growth of China-US relations. I also extend sincere appreciation to Dr. Among them were Chairman Mao Zedong and Premier Zhou Enlai, whose statues are in display right in this museum. I wish to pay high tribute to President Nixon and the elder generation of Chinese and American leaders who made extraordinary contribution to the establishment and development of China-US relations. I wish to thank the Nixon Foundation for the invitation, and my thanks also go to the sponsors contributing to the wonderful evening. It is my great pleasure to join you here, at the library named after President Richard Nixon, in his hometown, to commemorate his historic visit to China and the issuance of Shanghai Communique 50 years ago.
0 kommentar(er)
