China Overseas Chinese Network, February 22. According to the "Zhongshi News Network" report, Nixon may never be considered a great American leader.

He became the only U.S. president to resign after the Watergate scandal.

However, the political legacy he left will be remembered by all: China!

China!

China - Nixon's historic visit to China in 1972 was called "The Week That Changed the World"; this trip to China was also adapted into the opera "Nixon in China"; now, the phrase "Only Nixon can go to China" Words are used to describe the unique ability of political leaders to achieve difficult and even risky goals.

　　Since Nixon visited China for half a century, the world has undergone tremendous changes.

China is now the world's second-largest economy, no longer as Nixon described it in 1967, where "a billion people with the greatest potential...live in furious isolation."

The United States, for fear of losing the dominance it has enjoyed since the Spanish-American War in 1898, embarked on a "great power competition" against China and Russia.

　　Nixon's China policy during his administration showed his extraordinary vision and fearlessness, or rather, vision-based boldness.

When Sino-Soviet relations fell to a freezing point due to the border conflict, Nixon privately sent a message to China, expressing his hope that relations between the two countries could be improved.

　　When Chairman Mao invited the American table tennis team to visit China, Nixon received this friendly message.

He bypassed the cabinet and sent his national security adviser, Henry Kissinger, on a secret visit to China.

Since this visit to China did not inform Japan, an important ally of the United States in the region, it also triggered a "Nixon shock" in Japan.

　　These daring feats are the result of a grandmaster's meticulous calculations on the international political chessboard.

At the time, Washington's top priority was dealing with Soviet expansionism.

Therefore, it is in the best interest of the United States to win over "Red China".

　　The situation today is completely different.

President Trump, who has provoked a rivalry with China, describes himself as a "mentally stable genius" who makes decisions based on intuition rather than foresight.

Currently, the competition between China and the United States is intensifying.

President Biden's basic China policy is "extreme competition" other than war.

However, since "competition" is only a process, such a strategy is not only short-sighted, but also purposeless.

Worse, when the competition is too extreme, it can lead to the outcome Biden wants to avoid: a war.

　　While it is unbelievable that the U.S.-China relationship has taken an unbelievable turn, the two countries remain closely connected.

Despite political tensions and the ongoing trade war, bilateral trade between China and the United States will increase by 28.7% in 2021 to $755.6 billion.

This fully demonstrates the resilience of China-US relations and the absurdity of the US only wanting to cooperate with China in the areas of climate change and nuclear non-proliferation.

　　Even Nixon could set aside ideologies and values ​​for the common good; in contrast, a Biden administration called a "democracy summit" to "restore democracy inward and confront tyranny outward."

In 1972, Nixon embarked on a trip to China to break the ice of Sino-US relations; however, Trump used "decoupling" to bring the relationship between the two countries to a freezing point again.

　　It may not be impossible for China and the US to "decouple" in some high-tech fields, but the irony is that US technological sanctions will only prompt China to redouble its efforts to develop its own high-tech industries, and one day, China will no longer need US technology. high-tech products.

This is entirely possible.

As early as 2010, China surpassed the United States and became the world's largest industrial power.

　　A sober realist, Nixon's visit to China was to find an alliance against the Soviet Union, not to change China.

However, his visit to China sowed "seeds of hope" in the hearts of his successors, making them think that as long as the West engages with China, China will one day become "one of us".

However, when it saw that China was gradually developing and growing, but still did not join itself, the disillusioned United States began to embark on the road of competition.

　　But the outcome of the competition is yet to be seen.

Afghanistan is a prime example of a major U.S. government strategic mistake: The U.S. waged the longest war in its history in Afghanistan without knowing who the real enemy was.

　　In Craig Whitlock's best-selling book "The Afghanistan Papers," he reveals how, for more than two decades, mistakes that no one dared to admit were covered in lies that ultimately led to the United States losing a game that was initially popular with the people. Greatly supported war.

Isn't it the same with the Vietnam War?

One cannot step into the same river twice, but the memory of a superpower is often short-lived.

　　If competition between the US and China cannot be avoided, our best hope is that competition will not escalate into confrontation.

But even if Biden has said he wants to build "some common sense guardrails," there's no guarantee of that.

The US-Soviet competition was global, while the Sino-US competition was regional and concentrated in the Western Pacific.

Unlike the competition between the two camps of NATO and the Warsaw Pact, this is a one-on-one competition, and neither US allies nor China's partners are willing to take sides.

　　China is committed to realizing its centenary goal of the "China Dream" by the middle of this century, and even if China is drawn into more intense competition from the United States, this process should not be hindered.

The best way for China to deal with US competition is not to wrestle with the latter, but to further deepen reform and opening up and embrace the world.

　　Whatever the future of Sino-US relations, Nixon's trip to China fifty years ago reminds us that if enemies then could become friends, then rivals today won't necessarily become enemies.

Not only Nixon could go to China.

(The author is Zhou Bo, a researcher at the Center for Strategic and Security Studies of Tsinghua University and an expert at China Forum)