
On February 17, 1972 President Richard Nixon departed Washington for a seminal journey to China in which he met Mao Zedong. As he told journalists prior to his departure: “A trip to China is like going to the Moon”. That pretty much summed up the isolation of Maoist China at the time.
A rich assortment of articles has been looking back at the significance of the 50th anniversary of this landmark event. Indeed, the ‘great power’ triangulation that it triggered – between Beijing, Washington and Moscow – has seen a renewal of sorts today. That said, it was the Chinese and Russian leaders triangulating this time: issuing a joint rebuke over NATO expansionism during Vladimir Putin’s visit to the Beijing Winter Olympics this month.
Last weekend the Financial Times published a lengthy article about the anniversary of the Sino-US breakthrough in 1972, in which it noted: “Fifty years on Nixon’s adventurous diplomacy is as relevant as ever. In what seems reminiscent of the old China-Soviet axis, presidents Putin and Xi [Jinping] are finding common cause as the Ukraine crisis heats up. They met for the 38th time last week.”
Indeed, the power pendulum in this three-way relationship seems to be swinging in a new direction. In 1972 Nixon’s hope was to peel Beijing away from Moscow – and he was successful, making a major contribution to the eventual victory over the Soviet Union in the Cold War. Now the threesome has reoriented into a new two-versus-one alliance: China and Russia have become firmer diplomatic friends 50 years on because of their mutual antipathy towards the US.
As the South China Morning Post points out in its own article on the anniversary: “Nixon saw in diplomatic overtures to Mao an opportunity to gain leverage over the Soviet Union, and with that a chance to break the geopolitical stalemate with Moscow that had frustrated Washington for two decades. But it took time for Nixon, working with his national security adviser Henry Kissinger and others in a tight-knit group of policymakers, to reach that conclusion.”
Read More at https://www.weekinchina.com/2022/02/triangular-thinking/
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