President Donald Trump’svisit to China will certainly remain one remembered in history, and in this regard, one cannot help but draw an analogy with President Richard Nixon’s visit to China in 1972, when the topics of discussion were almost the same as today.
The triangle of China, the then Soviet Union, and the United States was in the spotlight, just as now one cannot talk about the Trump-Xi Jinping meeting without mentioning Russia and without asking whether the Americans once again offered the Chinese what they did then – to develop good relations and open cooperation, but at the expense of relations with Moscow.
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This was a tactic devised byHenry Kissinger,who, while serving as Nixon’s National Security Advisor, secretly visited China in July 1971 to prepare for the president’s visit.
The main issue at the time was Taiwan, and seven years later, in 1979, diplomatic relations were established between Washington and Beijing.
Then there was the question of whether Taiwan should be independent of China, with the Americans adhering to the “One China” policy, which recognizes Beijing, not Taipei, as the sole legal government of China.
In any case, Beijing would never accept Taiwan’s supremacy, especially not now, when it is far more powerful than it was half a century ago.
Today, China can talk to the Americans on equal terms, and there is no economically subordinate status for China. However, Trump’s tactic of imposing tariffs on China ahead of his visit to Beijing was not surprising, as he is using the leverage he has, behaving like a showman on one hand and a businessman on the other.
In business, Trump sets the terms high at the beginning of negotiations so he can lower them later. Now he is introducing these tariffs so he can remove them, in the sense of making some concessions, or rather, showing some power.
Source: Global Research
