Page 20 - 2020 White Paper on the Business Environment in China
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0 White Paper on the Business Environment in China
Both nations were looking to open a dialogue Gerald Ford
with one another. China’s alliance with the Soviet
Union had soured and produced a series of bloody In August 1974, when President Nixon resigned,
border clashes, and Chairman Mao believed ties his successor President Gerald Ford sent a
with the Americans might serve as a deterrent personal letter to Chairman Mao Ze Dong pledging
against the Russians. US President Richard Nixon, to continue on the path to stronger relations with
meanwhile, had made opening China a top priority the PRC, a policy still maintained by the White
of his administration. In 1967, he had written, “We House today. Ford continued the détente policy
simply cannot afford to leave China forever outside with both the Soviet Union and China, easing
the family of nations.” The two countries eventually the tensions of the Cold War. Still in place from
opened secret communications, but the real the Nixon Administration was the Strategic Arms
breakthrough came courtesy of a public encounter Limitation Treaty (SALT). The thawing relationship
between a pair of ping-pong players. During brought about by Nixon’s visit to China was
the 1971 World Table Tennis Championships in reinforced by Ford’s December 1975 return to the
Nagoya, Japan, 19-year-old US player Glenn Cowan country. Ford inherited Richard Nixon's foreign
hopped on a shuttle bus carrying the red-shirted policies and his foreign policy advisers. While
Chinese national team. Most of the Chinese Ford had not developed an expertise in American
eyed the shaggy-haired American with suspicion, foreign relations as a congressman or as vice
but Zhuang Zedong, the team’s greatest player, president, he was generally familiar with the major
stepped forward to shake Cowan’s hand and speak international issues facing the country. Given
to him through an interpreter. He even presented Ford's ultimate decision to retain Henry Kissinger, it
the teenager with a gift: a silk-screen picture of came as little surprise that the new administration
China’s Huangshan Mountains. Cowan returned continued the foreign policies pursued by Nixon
the gesture the following day by giving Zhuang a and Kissinger during the previous five years. Ford
t-shirt emblazoned with a peace symbol and the generally supported Nixon's goals of improved
Beatles’ lyric “Let It Be.” Photographers caught the relations with China. But in late 1975, Ford
incident on film, and the unexpected good will undertook a major shake-up of his foreign policy
between the US and Chinese teams soon became team. The President reduced Kissinger's portfolio
the talk of the tournament. The American ping- by naming Brent Scowcroft head of the National
pong team ranked 24th in the world, but only a few Security Council. As important, Ford fired Secretary
days later, they had inadvertently become the most Schlesinger and Director of Central Intelligence
important American diplomats on the planet. The William Colby, replacing them, respectively, with his
ripple effects of what had become known as “Ping- chief of staff, Donald Rumsfeld, and the American
Pong Diplomacy” only continued the following year. envoy to China, George H. W. Bush (Greene).
In response to the American trip, the Chinese sent
their table tennis team to the United States for an Jimmy Carter
eight-city tour. Even more earth-shattering was
Richard Nixon’s February 1972 visit to the People’s Forty years ago – during the height of the
Republic of China, which marked the first time in Cold War – former US President Jimmy Carter
history that an American president had traveled to and Chinese Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping looked
the Chinese mainland (Andrews). beyond their nations’ many differences and found
common ground. There wasn’t much love lost
The relationship between China and the between the nations. But President Carter and
US is now one of the most important bilateral Vice Premier Deng believed that rapprochement
relationships in the world, and every successive US would make the world safer and benefit both the
president except Jimmy Carter has visited China. US and China (CC). Taking office during a period
The Nixon trip is consistently ranked by historians, of relatively warm relations with China, Carter
scholars, and journalists as one of the most initially continued the conciliatory policies of his
important—if not the most important—visits by a predecessors. In 1978, when the normalization
US president anywhere. was under negotiation, Carter got a call around 3
20
Both nations were looking to open a dialogue Gerald Ford
with one another. China’s alliance with the Soviet
Union had soured and produced a series of bloody In August 1974, when President Nixon resigned,
border clashes, and Chairman Mao believed ties his successor President Gerald Ford sent a
with the Americans might serve as a deterrent personal letter to Chairman Mao Ze Dong pledging
against the Russians. US President Richard Nixon, to continue on the path to stronger relations with
meanwhile, had made opening China a top priority the PRC, a policy still maintained by the White
of his administration. In 1967, he had written, “We House today. Ford continued the détente policy
simply cannot afford to leave China forever outside with both the Soviet Union and China, easing
the family of nations.” The two countries eventually the tensions of the Cold War. Still in place from
opened secret communications, but the real the Nixon Administration was the Strategic Arms
breakthrough came courtesy of a public encounter Limitation Treaty (SALT). The thawing relationship
between a pair of ping-pong players. During brought about by Nixon’s visit to China was
the 1971 World Table Tennis Championships in reinforced by Ford’s December 1975 return to the
Nagoya, Japan, 19-year-old US player Glenn Cowan country. Ford inherited Richard Nixon's foreign
hopped on a shuttle bus carrying the red-shirted policies and his foreign policy advisers. While
Chinese national team. Most of the Chinese Ford had not developed an expertise in American
eyed the shaggy-haired American with suspicion, foreign relations as a congressman or as vice
but Zhuang Zedong, the team’s greatest player, president, he was generally familiar with the major
stepped forward to shake Cowan’s hand and speak international issues facing the country. Given
to him through an interpreter. He even presented Ford's ultimate decision to retain Henry Kissinger, it
the teenager with a gift: a silk-screen picture of came as little surprise that the new administration
China’s Huangshan Mountains. Cowan returned continued the foreign policies pursued by Nixon
the gesture the following day by giving Zhuang a and Kissinger during the previous five years. Ford
t-shirt emblazoned with a peace symbol and the generally supported Nixon's goals of improved
Beatles’ lyric “Let It Be.” Photographers caught the relations with China. But in late 1975, Ford
incident on film, and the unexpected good will undertook a major shake-up of his foreign policy
between the US and Chinese teams soon became team. The President reduced Kissinger's portfolio
the talk of the tournament. The American ping- by naming Brent Scowcroft head of the National
pong team ranked 24th in the world, but only a few Security Council. As important, Ford fired Secretary
days later, they had inadvertently become the most Schlesinger and Director of Central Intelligence
important American diplomats on the planet. The William Colby, replacing them, respectively, with his
ripple effects of what had become known as “Ping- chief of staff, Donald Rumsfeld, and the American
Pong Diplomacy” only continued the following year. envoy to China, George H. W. Bush (Greene).
In response to the American trip, the Chinese sent
their table tennis team to the United States for an Jimmy Carter
eight-city tour. Even more earth-shattering was
Richard Nixon’s February 1972 visit to the People’s Forty years ago – during the height of the
Republic of China, which marked the first time in Cold War – former US President Jimmy Carter
history that an American president had traveled to and Chinese Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping looked
the Chinese mainland (Andrews). beyond their nations’ many differences and found
common ground. There wasn’t much love lost
The relationship between China and the between the nations. But President Carter and
US is now one of the most important bilateral Vice Premier Deng believed that rapprochement
relationships in the world, and every successive US would make the world safer and benefit both the
president except Jimmy Carter has visited China. US and China (CC). Taking office during a period
The Nixon trip is consistently ranked by historians, of relatively warm relations with China, Carter
scholars, and journalists as one of the most initially continued the conciliatory policies of his
important—if not the most important—visits by a predecessors. In 1978, when the normalization
US president anywhere. was under negotiation, Carter got a call around 3
20
