Fifty years ago when U.S. President Richard Nixon visited China, there was a greater gap between China and the U.S. than there is now. Yet the two countries still chose to break the ice with the issuance of the Shanghai Communiqué, which laid the foundation for the two countries to establish diplomatic ties and advance cooperation in a wide range of areas.
“Nixon’s historic visit opened a door for China to re-engage with the world, and Chinese students, business people, scholars, technicians and scientists had the opportunity to travel to the U.S. and Western Europe and to learn from them. These men and women then came back and helped transform China into a modern and prosperous country,” Xie Tao, Dean of the School of International Relations and Diplomacy at Beijing Foreign Studies University, said a Webinar on China-U.S. relations and global governance on November 22.
Over the past 50 years, no two major countries have had closer contact or more interconnected interests than China and the U.S., Yu Tao, Vice President of China International Communications Group (CICG), told the participants from China and the U.S.
