Thawing of the Cold War
—the 1970's to 2001
American Cold War policy ensued
until the early 1970's,
when some major changes
in thinking were inaugurated.
Communist China's entry to the United Nations
was a setback for the United States.
The Vietnam War was not going well.
In the early 70s, American President Nixon,
the archconservative and anti-communist president,
up to that point,
was preparing to visit China
and the Soviet Union.
Why would an American president visit these enemies?
The Americans came to the realization
that the development of good relations
with its counterparts in the communist
world was necessary.
A forthcoming, more pragmatic approach to
foreign policy with China was to be
a departure from the adverse ideological approach.
The United States had lost solid backing
from traditional supporters,
as illustrated by Communist China's
entry into the United Nations.
The question as to whether
Nationalist China or the People's Republic of China
should hold China's permanent Security Council seat,
was a topic of much discussion
and debate for years.
For many countries,
the idea of ignoring
one third of the world's population
at the UN was difficult to rationalize.
This debate ensued until 1971,
when the Peoples Republic of China
finally displaced Nationalist China
at the United Nations,
including the permanent seat,
originally held by Nationalist China
in the Security Council.
A baffled United States
could no longer persuade nor
intimidate the majority of the countries
in the UN General Assembly to
keep Communist China out of the UN.
The United States had little choice
but to eventually extend official recognition
to the Peoples Republic of China.
The war-weary American people
were no longer supporting the war
in Vietnam and no longer eagerly supporting
traditional foreign policy.
A major scandal(Watergate),
that would rock the Nixon Administration
to the resultant resignation of the president,
was about to be disclosed.
Practical solutions were needed
for practical problems.
Peaceful coexistence meant
finding some common ground
on which to activate
international trust and cooperation.
Nixon's consecutive predecessors,
Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy,
and Johnson would have rolled over
in their graves if they
could have seen these changes.
These changes would have appeared alien,
contradictory or even contrived,
to them and their contemporaries.
Presidents Ford, Reagan, Bush,
and Clinton saw the need to keep
communication channels open with China.
Americans finally realized that
they could no longer
keep down a sleeping giant.
No longer a Paper Tiger,
China was a reality,
and was entitled to an important place
in world decisionmaking venues.
In the 1980's following the Cultural Revolution
and the death of Mao Tsetung,
China's outlook on the world changed dramatically.
Deng Xiaopeng's reforms were
to bring China closer to being
a major world partner in international trade
and the development of world markets.
This was capped with its admission
to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in December 2001.
China has been most willing to comply
with all of the regulations of the WTO.
Americans have only
half-heartedly opposed China's entry,
by unfairly using “human rights”
as a distraction to perhaps disguise
other international pressures.
However, the United States,
for a couple of decades,
already had major, politically discreet,
vested economic interests in China
that it could not afford
to deny or jeopardize.
In 1998, China signed
a Permanent Normal Trading Relations agreement
with the United States,
the prelude to the former's entry into the WTO.
President Clinton, who visited China in 1998,
had essentially paid lip service
to Congressional pressure to push
the human rights issues with China.
Except for the occasional irritating crisis
in recent years, such as
the spy plane incident off the island
of Hainan in April 2001,
Sino-American relations have been cordial
but cautious. The consensus seems to be,
that China's destiny as a major international force
in the 21th century, seems reasonably assured.
