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China-Russia relations
ChinaDiplomacy
Shi Jiangtao
Shi Jiangtao

As I see it | Lesson in courage of Mao-Nixon detente ignored with Putin’s war choice in Ukraine

  • The 50th anniversary of the Shanghai Communique, signed on the last day of Richard Nixon’s visit to China, is a reminder of courage
  • Can Beijing take its place as a world leader and help put a stop to the invasion, despite its recent pivot to Moscow?

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Chairman Mao Zedong greets former US president Richard Nixon during his 1972 visit to China, which culminated with the Shanghai Communique. Photo: Xinhua
Shi Jiangtao
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine – in the middle of a new cold war between China and the US – has dragged the world deeper into an abyss of confrontation.
The conflict could have been avoided, if Putin and his supporters had heeded the lessons of 50 years ago, when the world’s leaders faced another dramatic choice between war and peace, to resolve a three-way crisis between China, the US and Russia.
History issued a reminder on Monday, with the 50th anniversary of the Shanghai Communique – the culmination of former US president Richard Nixon’s historic visit to China in 1972.

The communique was a landmark document of detente in which Beijing and Washington agreed for the first time to jointly oppose the hegemony of the Soviet Union, while agreeing to disagree on most other issues – including Taiwan.

At the time, still mired in costly wars in Vietnam and Cambodia, the US was perilously close to nuclear war with the Soviet Union – which was threatening a largely isolated China with nuclear attacks, as the former communist allies took opposite sides of the India-Pakistan war.

All that changed with Nixon’s China visit, a stroke of genius that brought Beijing in from the cold to counter Moscow, eased tensions with the two largest communist countries, secured peace in the Asia-Pacific region, and eventually tilted the balance of the Cold War towards Washington.

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