Nixon Visits China: Cold War Thaws in Beijing
Richard Nixon announced his planned visit to China on July 15, 1971, shocking the world. When he arrived in Beijing in February 1972, he shook hands with Zhou Enlai at the airport, a gesture deliberately chosen because Secretary of State John Foster Dulles had refused to shake Zhou's hand at the Geneva Conference in 1954. Nixon spent a week in China, met with the ailing Mao Zedong, and signed the Shanghai Communique acknowledging that Taiwan was part of China. The visit shattered 23 years of diplomatic isolation between the two nations, realigned the Cold War by driving a wedge between Beijing and Moscow, and opened a trading relationship that would eventually reshape the global economy.
July 15, 1971
55 years ago
Key Figures & Places
What Else Happened on July 15
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