The sun was out but the weather was chilly 20 years ago Friday as Richard M. Nixon, long a symbol of the capitalism that communists despised, arrived in Beijing for summit talks with Chairman Mao Tse-tung.
A week later, Nixon left with a broad understanding that the United States would work with the world's most populous nation to oppose any Soviet dominance in Asia.In a gesture to Mao, Nixon announced U.S. forces would be pulled out of Taiwan "as the tension in the area diminishes." In 1979, formal ties with the Nationalist government on the island were broken, and ever since then, American presidents have grappled with how best to deal with China.
The Soviet Union is no longer a cause for concern in Washington or in Beijing. It has disappeared. But President Bush 20 years after Nixon's opening to China still wants to maintain strong ties. Most Americans would agree the goal is worthwhile. But China's poor human rights record and reliable reports of arms sales to the Middle East are raising questions about Bush's approach.
Winston Lord was U.S. ambassador to Beijing from 1985 to 1989. He helped write the 1972 communique, prepared Nixon's briefing books and was the first American to enter China since 1949.
Lord scored that triumph in July 1971, accompanying Henry A. Kissinger, the president's assistant for national security, on a secret flight to Beijing that set the stage for Nixon's visit.
As the Pakistani plane approached the airport, Lord recalled Thursday in an interview, "I went to the front and I was the first one out." Kissinger, who had hoped to be the first to set foot on Chinese soil, "was not pleased," Lord chuckled.
Turning serious, Lord said the human rights situation in China 10 years ago also was "very bad." But the United States had not had contact with the Chinese for 22 years.
Today, against a backdrop of a 20-year relationship, Lord faults the Bush administration for not taking a tougher stand on human rights.
"We should conduct necessary business with them. I am not calling for isolation," he said. "And certainly private and academic exchange should continue whenever they are fruitful and lay the foundation for better relations."
But, Lord added, "I believe we should avoid high-level meetings which tend to legitimize the regime."
Three weeks ago, Bush met for 20 minutes in New York with Chinese Prime Minister Li Peng. It was Li who ordered the crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in Beijing in June 1989.
People around the world had seen the massacre at Tiananmen Square on television, and Bush responded with sanctions.
But he sent his national security adviser, Brent Scowcroft, and Deputy Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger on two secret trips to Beijing in 1989 and has treated China with considerable care.
The opening of China has been called the most serious foreign policy initiative of the Nixon presidency. Harry Harding, a scholar at the Brookings Institution, is also critical of Bush's approach.
After imposing sanctions, Harding said Bush has tried quietly to "swap our way" out of the impasse by offering to drop some sanctions in exchange for concessions from Beijing.