Cold War China

How did Nixon’s visit to China change the Cold War?

1. Improving communist relations 

2. Peaceful progress 

3. Recognising differences yet wanting to transcend that 

What did the USA want?

1. Policy change—"open world" where no one will live in angry isolation 

2. China to stop supporting Vietnam 

3. Improve relations with China 

4. China and Japan created communique same year (1972) in process of losing SV outpost, want to increase trade/relations in region 

5. Drive Chinese further from the Soviets, propel China into increasingly neutral situation 

What did China want?

1. Improved relations with the US 

2. Counterbalance against Soviets, bigger enemy for Chinese is USSR, closer geographically (view the Soviets as revisionist), China increasingly unhappy with how Soviets were dealing with Europe and Cuba, de-stalinisation speech 

What was the Cultural Revolution?

1. Social/political revolution (1966-76) initiated by Mao to reassert his authority and strengthen the revolutionary spirit in China

2. Mao wanted to use the youth of China, became Red Guards, wanting to remove opponents; anyone who became a threat to him was a target 

Who was Mao Zedong?

1. Chinese revolutionary and political leader

2. Founded the People's Republic of China in 1949

3. Ruled China until his death in 1976 

Describe China's early nuclear weapons programme? 

1. Soviet assistance in the 1950s

2. First atomic bomb test, 1964

3. First hydrogen bomb test 1967

4. Underground nuclear test 1969 

What was the 'Artichoke' approach towards China?

1. US wanting to gradually ease tensions with China overtime

2. Idea of peeling away leaves slowly, step-by-step—take some sanctions off

3. Kissinger visits, then Nixon