When Richard Nixon went to Beijing in 1972, it was a gamble. He was betting that a diplomatic opening with the communist government, and downgrading relations with Taiwan, which claimed to be the rightful ruler of China, would serve American interests.
Successive visits to China by US presidents have built on that idea. And for their part, Chinese leaders have viewed the summits as a way to defuse tensions, convey their core interests and offer hope of stronger ties.
The visits are in a continuum of alternating dark and bright periods in relations, from the gloom after the massacre around Tiananmen Square to the electricity as China entered the World Trade Organisation and became an engine in the global economy.
All the while, US presidents hoped that integration through trade would lead to political change in Beijing one day. As China’s power grew, and the nation became more confident — some argue arrogant — in its dealings with the US, the dynamics of the summits changed. Many in China now regard the US as a nation in terminal decline.
Before his arrival in Beijing on Wednesday, President Trump posted online that he planned to ask Xi to “open up” China — language that echoes the way American presidents have framed relations with China for half a century.
Richard Nixon (1972): Nixon’s visit — one of the seminal overseas trips by a US president in the post-World War II era — came after Henry Kissinger, the president’s national security adviser, made a secret trip to Beijing. The US had not had formal relations with the People’s Republic since Mao established it in 1949, and instead had embraced the anti-communist Kuomintang government on the island of Taiwan as the legitimate ruling power of China.
Gerald Ford (1975): President Ford’s five-day visit in December was 10 months before the death of Mao Zedong. China was in the final stage of the Cultural Revolution, the decade-long period resulting from a campaign by Mao to hold onto power that devastated the country’s social, economic and political foundations. The talks paved the way for normal relations that President Jimmy Carter would establish in 1979. (Carter did not visit China during his presidency, nor did President Joe Biden.)
Ronald Reagan (1984): Ardent Cold Warrior Ronald Reagan did not talk of a need to overthrow the Chinese Communist Party or to undermine its policies. As a practical statesman, he nudged forward discussions about trade, which would later become the centrepiece of US-China relations.
George H.W. Bush (1989): When President Bush touched down in Beijing, he was returning to a country he had become fond of. His familiarity with China was rooted in his post from 1974 to 1975 as the chief of the US Liaison Office. But the Tiananmen Square protests and massacre would complicate relations later in 1989.
Bill Clinton (1998): President Bill Clinton’s visit to China occurred in a heady decade for the US following the fall of the Soviet Union, when America appeared to be unchallenged in the world.
George W. Bush (2001, 2002, 2005, 2008): George W. Bush was in the stands in Beijing for the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics, interpreted by many as a “coming out” party for China on the world stage. It was his fourth visit in the era of high globalisation, when China’s economy was surging after its entry into the WTO.
Barack Obama (2009, 2014, 2016): President Obama’s first visit came in the shadow of the global financial crisis. While Obama was trying to dig his country out of its plight, China’s economy continued surging because of stimulus policies.
Obama visited Beijing again in 2014 for an economic summit of Asian nations and met Xi. By then, relations had evolved for the worse. On his final visit, in 2016, Obama’s jet landed in Hangzhou, but he had to exit from the rear of the aircraft after Chinese workers failed to wheel a staircase to the front of the plane.
Donald Trump (2017): Trump criticised China’s trade practices on the campaign trail in 2016. At the same time, progressive politicians were also talking more forcefully about the ills of a globalised economy. Trump’s trip took place against that backdrop. But soon after the trip, in January 2018, Trump started a trade war with China.
The New York Times