It all began in 1971 after President Nixon lowered trade restrictions between China and U.S. This led to dramatic events, which helped end more than decades of Sino-American hostility. It occurred when President Nixon met the ailing Chinese dictator, Mao Zedong, with the aim of improving the Sino-American relationship. This was due to Nixon’s belief on the importance of maintaining a strategic equilibrium among the super powers, which led to the development of a foreign policy that established a stable triangular balance of power (Norton et al, 2012).
This led to reduced military actions that could spark emotions among the countries.This historic visit also lessened the tension by placing the Soviet Union to at a disadvantage due to U.S involvement with China. Other than this, it led to the end of superiority, which was a strategy to control other countries perceived nuclear interests within the major countries. The United States acknowledged one China policy that recognized Taiwan as part of China, which eased the tension between the two countries. The whole idea was to contain the Soviet’s threat that the two countries had identified that could occur within the Chinese border and the Soviet Union (Paterson, 1988).
President Nixon visit to China opened a dialogue between the west and the east. It led to the rise of some of the historic treaties that helped reduce tension. There are treaties that resulted from the meeting between Mao Zedong and President Nixon, which regulated the impacts of the super powers on peace efforts. The Nixon Mao Zedong meeting had a greater impact that spread beyond international relations. Other nations like Russia came into the limelight due to the strategic input observed between the United States and China.
References
Norton, M. B. (2012). A people and a nation: A history of the United States. Belmont, Calif: Wadsworth.
Paterson, T. G. (1988). Meeting the communist threat: Truman to Reagan. New York: Oxford University Press.
