Events on February 21 in history

United States President Richard Nixon visits the People's Republic of China to normalize Sino-American relations.

The relationship between the People's Republic of China and the United States of America has been complex since 1949. After 1980 the economic ties grew rapidly. The relationship is one of close economic ties, as well as hegemonic rivalry in the Asia-Pacific. It has been described by world leaders and academics as the world's most important bilateral relationship of the 21st century.

As of 2021, the United States has the world's largest economy and China has the second largest although China has a larger GDP when measured by PPP. Historically, relations between the two countries have generally been stable with some periods of open conflict, most notably during the Korean War and the Vietnam War. Currently, the United States and China have mutual political, economic, and security interests, such as the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, but there are unresolved concerns relating to the role of democracy in government in China and human rights in China. China is the second largest foreign creditor of the United States, after Japan. The two countries remain in dispute over territorial issues in the South China Sea; China (like Taiwan) claims sovereignty over virtually the entire South China Sea, while the United States sees it as international waters and claims the right for its warships and aircraft to conduct operations in the area.Relations with China began slowly until the 1845 Treaty of Wangxia. The US opposed spheres of influence by outside powers by promoting the Open Door Policy after 1900. It joined the powers in suppressing the Boxer Rebellion. Washington efforts to encourage American banks to invest in Chinese railways was unsuccessful in the 1900s. President Franklin Roosevelt made support of China against Japan a high priority after 1938. The US was allied to the Republic of China during the Pacific War against Japan (19411945). Washington tried and failed to negotiate a compromise between the Nationalists and Communists in 19451947. After the victory of Mao Zedong's Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in Mainland China during the Chinese Civil War, relations soured. The US and China fought in an intense but localized undeclared war 1950-1953 in the Korean War. The US recognized the Taiwan government as the legitimate government of China, and blocked the other China's membership in the United Nations.

President Richard Nixon's 1972 visit to China marked an unexpected reversal of positions. Since Nixon's visit, every US president, with the exception of Jimmy Carter, has toured China. Relations with China have strained under President Barack Obama's Asia pivot strategy. Despite tensions during his term, the Chinese population's favorability of the US stood at 51% in Obama's last year of 2016, only to fall during the Trump administration. According to a 2020 survey by the Pew Research Center, 22% of Americans have a favorable view of China, with 73% expressing an unfavorable view, one of the most negative perceptions of China. The poll also found that 24% (plurality) of Americans see China as the top threat to the US. Furthermore, surveys of the Chinese public also found a corresponding decrease in favorability towards the US, with 61% to 72% of them expressing an unfavorable view.The relationship deteriorated sharply under U.S. president Donald Trump and CCP general secretary Xi Jinping, with issues such as China's militarization of the South China Sea and Chinese espionage in the United States arising. The Trump administration labeled China a "strategic competitor" starting with the 2017 National Security Strategy. It subsequently launched a trade war against China, banned US companies from selling equipment to Huawei and other companies linked to human rights abuses in Xinjiang, increased visa restrictions on Chinese nationality students and scholars and designated China as a currency manipulator. During the Trump administration, and especially since the US-China trade war began, political observers have started to warn that a new cold war is emerging.Tensions between the United States and China have remained under the Biden administration, which made China one of its focal points in implementing U.S. foreign policy. The more confrontational stance has endured, with the Biden administration focusing on China's treatment of Hong Kong, its threats against Taiwan, the Uyghur genocide, and Chinese cyberwarfare. In response, China has adopted "wolf warrior diplomacy" to deny all accusations of human rights abuses.

Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. He was a member of the Republican Party who previously served as a representative and senator from California and was the 36th vice president from 1953 to 1961. His five years in the White House saw the end of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, détente with the Soviet Union and China, the first manned Moon landings, and the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency. Nixon's second term ended early, when he became the only president to resign from office, following the Watergate scandal.

Nixon was born into a poor family of Quakers in a small town in Southern California. He graduated from Duke Law School in 1937, practiced law in California, then moved with his wife Pat to Washington in 1942 to work for the federal government. After active duty in the Naval Reserve during World War II, he was elected to the House of Representatives in 1946. His work on the Alger Hiss Case established his reputation as a leading anti-Communist, which elevated him to national prominence, and in 1950, he was elected to the Senate. Nixon was the running mate of Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Republican Party's presidential nominee in the 1952 election, and served for eight years as the vice president. He ran for president in 1960, narrowly lost to John F. Kennedy, then failed again in a 1962 race for governor of California. In 1968, he made another run for the presidency and was elected, defeating Hubert Humphrey and George Wallace in a close contest.

Nixon formally ended American involvement in Vietnam combat in 1973, and with it, the military draft, that same year. His visit to China in 1972 eventually led to diplomatic relations between the two nations, and he also then concluded the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with the Soviet Union. In step with his conservative beliefs, his administration incrementally transferred power from the federal government to the states. Nixon's domestic policy saw him impose wage and price controls for 90 days, enforce desegregation of Southern schools, establish the Environmental Protection Agency, and begin the War on Cancer. Additionally, his administration pushed for the Controlled Substances Act and began the War on Drugs. He also presided over the Apollo 11 Moon landing, which signaled the end of the Space Race. He was re-elected with a historic electoral landslide in 1972 when he defeated George McGovern.

In his second term, Nixon ordered an airlift to resupply Israeli losses in the Yom Kippur War, a war which led to the oil crisis at home. By late 1973, the Nixon administration's involvement in the Watergate eroded his support in Congress and the country. On August 9, 1974, facing almost certain impeachment and removal from office, Nixon resigned the presidency. Afterwards, he was issued a pardon by his successor, Gerald Ford. In his almost 20 years of retirement, Nixon wrote his memoirs and nine other books and undertook many foreign trips, rehabilitating his image into that of an elder statesman and leading expert on foreign affairs. He suffered a debilitating stroke on April 18, 1994, and died four days later at age 81. Surveys of historians and political scientists have ranked Nixon as a below-average president. Evaluations of him have proven complex, as the successes of his presidency have been contrasted with the circumstances of his departure from office.