China and the USA After 1970

What was the PRC's relationship like with the United States at the start?

The PRC was formed in the early years of the Cold War, which was dominated by the struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union. This situation greatly influenced the relationship between China and the USA from 1949 to 1990.

What was the relationship between China and the United States like in 1949?

In 1949, the Cold War was entering one of its most dangerous phases. There were 4 key reasons and events that created a very tense relationship between the PRC and the USA:

• ❖ The USA felt it had 'lost China' after supporting Chiang Kai-shek in fighting the Japanese and the CCP, and was now determined to support Taiwan (the Republic of China or ROC) as the legitimate China.
• ❖ The ROC was a founding member of the United Nations and was given a key role on the UN Security Council, along with the USA, Great Britain, France and the Soviet Union. The PRC was not invited to join.
• ❖ In December 1949, Mao Zedong travelled to the Soviet Union to ask for economic and technical aid to help build a strong China.
• ❖ US foreign policy was heavily influenced by the Domino Theory. America was alarmed by the spread of communism in Asia and wanted to stop other countries falling to it.

What was the relationship between China and the United States like in the 1950s?

In the 1950s there were 10 key events and reasons that caused the PRC's relations with the USA to deteriorate:

• ❖ In February 1950, Stalin and Mao signed the 30-year Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance.
• ❖ The United States and the UN, wishing to avoid the mistakes of the League of Nations, sent troops to defend South Korea.
• ❖ On the 1st October 1950, UN troops crossed the 38th Parallel into North Korea and headed for the Yalu River bordering China.
• ❖ On the 6th October 1950, the PLA invaded and occupied Tibet, forcing the Dalai Lama into exile.
• ❖ Stalin and Kim Il Sung asked for Chinese support. On the 25th October 1950, the People's Volunteer Force (the PLA in disguise) launched a counter-attack against UN forces in North Korea.
• ❖ The Korean War continued for another 2 years but ended in stalemate in July 1953 when an armistice was signed. The USA's dead numbered over 33,000, while the Chinese lost more than 180,000 soldiers in the conflict.
• ❖ The Korean War made the Americans determined to confront the PRC for the next 20 years.
• ❖ The USA was determined to defend the ROC and support it militarily. From 1954, the US Navy patrolled the Taiwan Straits in defence of the ROC.
• ❖ In 1957, the Soviet Union began supplying nuclear technology to Mao.
• ❖ By the late 1950s, the Sino-Soviet split was caused by Nikita Khrushchev's criticism of Stalin and his policy of 'peaceful coexistence' with the West. This caused Mao to become hostile to his ally.

What was the relationship between China and the United States like during the 1960s?

In the 1960s there were 9 key events and reasons that kept the PRC's relations with the USA tense, but with the promise of change.

• ❖ Throughout the 1960s, the USA blocked any attempt by China to join the United Nations and kept up its support for the ROC to be on the UN Security Council.
• ❖ By 1962, the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance was dead and the Soviets began to cut their aid to the PRC.
• ❖ The Sino-Indian war broke out in October-November, 1962. This was a brief conflict between the PRC and India along their shared border in Assam.
• ❖ The USA became directly involved in the Vietnam War in 1964. The PRC and the Soviet Union were major suppliers of arms and equipment to North Vietnam, and supplies were sent over the Chinese-North Vietnamese border.
• ❖ In 1964, China tested its first atomic weapon, showing that it had become a nuclear power. This made Mao Zedong more confident that China could stand up to other states on the international stage.
• ❖ Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Mao supported or inspired peasant-based communist groups across Asia in places such as Vietnam, Malaya, Indonesia and Cambodia. Western soldiers, or western-backed governments fought bitter wars against these groups.
• ❖ In March 1969, tensions between the Soviet Union and the PRC were so high a brief war broke out along their shared border, where both sides had stationed over 1.5 million soldiers.
• ❖ By the end of the 1960s, despite Mao fighting the Americans indirectly throughout Asia, the complete failure of Sino-Soviet relations forced Mao to rethink his relationship with the USA.
• ❖ Richard Nixon became president of the USA in January 1969. He had already made it clear to the PRC that he wanted better relations, and also wanted to withdraw America from direct fighting in Vietnam.

What was the relationship between China and the United States like in the 1970s?

In the 1970s there were 9 key events and reasons that would see a major improvement in Sino-American relations.

• ❖ The Vietnam War was proving a disaster at home and for the American reputation overseas. Nixon wanted Vietnamisation to take the fight to communism and to pull American troops out of the conflict.
• ❖ The Americans wanted to take advantage of the Sino-Soviet split and Mao wanted better relations to avoid being isolated.
• ❖ After the unmitigated disasters of the Great Famine and the Cultural Revolution, even Mao realised it would be to China's advantage to open up to technology, expertise and advisers from the West.
• ❖ In 1971, Henry Kissinger visited China. In return for opening a new relationship, the USA expelled the ROC from the UN Security Council and accepted the PRC as a member.
• ❖ In 1971, 'ping-pong' diplomacy began when an American and Chinese player competed against each other at the World Table Tennis Championships in Japan. Mao was so impressed with the coverage he allowed American players to visit the PRC to play.
• ❖ Mao was feeling vulnerable, especially after his supposedly loyal companion from the civil war, Lin Biao, was involved in a plot to depose him. Mao needed to improve conditions in China to stop plots against him.
• ❖ Ping-pong diplomacy led to a new era of cultural and economic exchanges between communist China and the USA.
• ❖ In February 1972, Nixon became the first American president to visit China for talks with Mao. The two powers released the Shanghai Communique, promising peace between them.
• ❖ By 1979, relations were so good that the United States officially recognised the PRC and its government when Deng Xiaoping visited Washington.

What was the relationship between China and the United States like in the 1980s?

In the 1980s there were 8 key events and reasons that led to a deepening of relations with the USA. However, this would not prevent some major problems:

• ❖ After Deng Xiaoping's visit, the Chinese and American governments began a series of agreements that would see an exchange of trade, technology and culture until 1989.
• ❖ Throughout the 1980s, the USA even sold arms to China and cooperated with the country to set up listening posts close to the Soviet border.
• ❖ By 1983 the US state department recognised the PRC as a friendly nation, despite the fact China supplied arms to American adversaries.
• ❖ In 1984, President Ronald Reagan visited China; however, he was a committed anti-communist so relations took a downturn.
• ❖ President George H W Bush visited China in 1989.
• ❖ The Tiananmen Square massacre and behaviour of the Chinese government brought widespread condemnation. President George H W Bush immediately ended arms sales, imposed economic sanctions and ended high-level trade and cultural meetings.
• ❖ With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989, relations between the USA and the PRC reverted to their pre-1972 situation, with high levels of suspicion and little interaction.