Road to Shanghai Communique relived 50 years on

Secret trip

Henry Kissinger, who served as assistant for national security affairs to the US president from January 1969 until November 1975 and was behind Nixon's historic China visit, remembers how the Shanghai Communique originated.

He made a secret visit to China from July 9 to 11, 1971, to prepare the ground for Nixon's visit and the normalization of Sino-US relations.

Kissinger's secret trip came as China and the US had been locked in a prolonged confrontation since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, while the Kuomintang, led by Chiang Kai-shek, fled to Taiwan after losing the civil war. After assuming office as US president in 1969, Nixon opted for improved ties with China, in response to domestic considerations as well as changed dynamics in the global political arena.

In October 1971, Kissinger returned to China with a draft joint communique that the US thought would be appropriate to issue at the end of Nixon's visit.

"When I left the United States, we had drafted a standard communique, as it is issued at practically every meeting of countries that deal with each other, which indicated that we were making progress in our relations, but that was not very specific," Kissinger said.

Premier Zhou Enlai made clear that such an approach was unacceptable because "this will not express the magnitude of the occasion of the two heads of these two major countries meeting", Kissinger said.

"It was therefore proposed to us that we do something that has never been done in any major negotiation and, to the best of my knowledge, has not been done in any other negotiations, namely, that both sides should state their own point of view, however differently but very clearly, so that the world could understand the basic point of view."

Tang Wensheng, who served as interpreter for Chairman Mao Zedong's meeting with Nixon, said Nixon and his party were invited to meet Mao at his residence in Zhongnanhai, the leadership compound in Beijing, just after they had arrived and finished lunch.