How other US presidents handled the dragon

BEIJING, China — China is a tricky place for U.S. presidents.

President Barack Obama begins his first trip to China Nov. 15, with his policy toward China still largely untested. Obama has continued on a course of trade and engagement, getting tougher than his processor and invoking a protection on tire imports that spurred tit-for-tat trade tariffs between the two countries. He has said little about human rights in China and last month became the first U.S. president in nearly 20 years to refuse to meet with the Dalai Lama in Washington.

Given the enormity of the U.S.-China relationship, it’s easy to forget formal relations didn’t exist until just 30 years ago. Here, GlobalPost looks back at U.S. presidents in the People’s Republic of China:

President Richard Nixon (1969-74): In 1972, Nixon set America on a course of engagement with China. He was the first U.S. president to visit the People’s Republic, where he met with Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong. In the two decades before Nixon’s groundbreaking trip, U.S.-China relations were marked by hostility and misunderstanding.

“We will have differences in the future. But what we must do is to find a way to see that we can have differences without being enemies in war,” Nixon said in a speech to Congress before leaving for China. “If we can make progress toward that goal on this trip, the world will be a much safer world and the chance particularly for all of those young children over there to grow up in a world of peace will be infinitely greater.”

Obama T-shirts in Beijing (David Gray/Reuters)

Nixon’s visit, which came after nearly a year of secret preparations and “ping-pong diplomacy,” ended with the Shanghai Communiqué. The document (actually signed in Hangzhou) spelled out intent to normalize diplomatic relations, but diplomatic ties took seven more years to negotiate.

For more about Nixon in China, including audio tapes, visit our friends at the Council on Foreign Relations.

President Gerald Ford (1974-77): Ford, who served just two-and-a-half years in the White House, carried forward Nixon’s China policy. He followed up with talks and a visit to Beijing in 1975 (with Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and liaison George H.W. Bush). Yet his foreign policy was dominated by final U.S. troop withdrawals from Vietnam and managing tensions with the Soviet Union.

President Jimmy Carter (1977-81): Carter was at the helm 30 years ago when the United States ended its formal relationship with Taiwan in exchange for normalized relations with China (China held that out as a condition of diplomatic relations). Under Carter, the U.S. recognized China’s contention that Taiwan is part of China.

“It’s important that we make progress toward normalizing relations with the People’s Republic of China,” Carter said in a foreign policy speech in 1977. “We see the American and Chinese relationship as a central element of our global policy and China as a key force for global peace.”

Historians say there was disagreement within the Carter administration, but the U.S. bet a stronger alliance with China would help counter the Soviet Union. Carter hosted Chinese Premier Deng Xiaoping in Washington but did not go to China. He has visited several times since leaving office, however, and returns this month to tour the Sichuan earthquake zone with Habitat for Humanity.

President Ronald Reagan (1981-89): Reagan, staunch anti-communist and supporter of Taiwan, is not remembered in China as a great leader of Sino-U.S. relations. Yet Reagan engaged broadly with China and the two countries signed a 1981 agreement to reduce American weapons sales to Taiwan.

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