Feb 21—Feb 28, 1972: Mao Zedong meets with Richard Nixon

Feb 21, 1951: The Central People's Government announces "punishment regulations of the PRC on counter-revolutionaries"

According to the Party's policy of combining repression with leniency, "Regulations" set the principles and methods to deal with a case of counter-revolution, providing the legal weapons and sentencing standards for the struggle to suppress counter-revolutionaries, and promoting the extensive and deep development of the movement. In the spring, mass movements of suppressing counter-revolutionaries developed to a national climax.

Feb 21, 1955: The State Council issues "orders on releasing the new Renminbi and reclaiming the current currency"

On March 1, the People's Bank of China issued new Renminbi, and reclaimed the old Renminbi with the equivalent ratio of new currency 1 yuan equaling to old currency 10 thousand yuan.

Feb 21—Feb 23, 1962: Liu Shaoqi holds an enlarged meeting of the Politburo Standing Committee in the west building of Zhongnanhai ("West building meeting")to discuss the issues of the 1962 state budget and the economic situation

According to the estimation of the "Seven-thousand People Congress", the national economy had come out of the most difficult "bottom" in 1962, and had begun to rise. But in fact, the economic situation was not fully out of the "bottom". The important indications of this were capital construction, too large financial expenditure, too much currency, a serious shortage of goods, and rising prices. This causes the Central Government's attention. The West building meeting analyzed the situation during a time of decline in agricultural production, a tight market, rising prices and large budget deficits, and tried to determine a recovery period, taking decisive measures to fully adjust the national economy.

Feb 21—Feb 28, 1972: Mao Zedong meets with Richard Nixon

From Feb 21to Feb 28, 1972, U.S. President Richard Nixon visited China. On Feb 21, Mao Zedong met with Nixon for a serious and frank exchange of views on bilateral relations and international affairs. On Feb 22, Zhou Enlai and Nixon had a discussion on the normalization of bilateral relations and other issues of mutual concern. On Feb 27, the two governments signed a "joint communiqué" in Shanghai (also known as the "Shanghai Communiqué"), and issued it on Feb 28. In the "joint communiqué", the two sides listed their different opinions on major international issues in a frank and realistic manner and confirmed the essential difference between the two social systems and foreign policies. The publishing of the "joint communiqué" marked the start of the road toward the normalization of Sino-US relations.

Feb 21—Feb 22, 2002: President George W. Bush has a two-day visit to China

On Feb 21, President Jiang Zemin held talks with Bush at the Great Hall. Jiang Zemin put forward four points on maintaining, developing and enriching bilateral constructive cooperation relations: (a) Further strengthen strategic high-level dialogues and contact between various levels and various departments, promoting understanding and trust. (b) Deepen exchanges and cooperation in various fields to benefit people of the two countries. (c) Properly handle differences between each other, especially on the Taiwan issue, on the basis of mutual respect and common ground. (d) Communicate regularly and strengthen cooperation in jointly safeguarding world peace and promoting human civilization and progress. Bush agreed with China on the development of bilateral relations, hoping to expand and strengthen the cooperation with China in all areas. On Feb 22, Premier Zhu Rongji met with Bush at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, stressing that the Taiwan question is the most sensitive core question in Sino-US relations. Bush reiterated that the U.S. government pursues the one-China policy and hoped for the peaceful settlement of the Taiwan question and that this position will not change. The same day, Bush delivered a speech at Tsinghua University.

Feb 21—Feb 25, 2002: The CPC Central Committee holds a seminar attended by provincial and ministerial-level officials on the "international situation and the WTO" at the Central Party School

Hu Jintao delivered a speech at the opening ceremony and pointed out that the seminar was another important measure which the Central Government took to help China adapt to a new stage of opening up. On Feb 25, Jiang Zemin held talks with trainees and pointed out that the accession to the WTO marked that fact that China's opening up had entered a new stage. We should be more active in the world, adapt to the new situation of economic globalization, and continue to promote all-round, multi-level and wide opening up of the country to provide new and powerful forces for our economic development.