United States presidential visits to China

President Richard Nixon meets with Mao Zedong in Beijing, February 21, 1972. This was the first visit by an incumbent president to mainland China.

There have been eleven U.S. presidential visits to China, by seven presidents, since 1972. The relationship between the United States and China, one in which each nation regards each other as a potential adversary as well as a strategic partner, has been described by world leaders and academicians as the world's most important bilateral relationship of the century.^[1][2] As of 2014, the United States has the world's largest economy and China the second largest. The International Monetary Fund estimates that China's economy has overtaken that of United States in terms of GDP (PPP) in 2014 but the United States' economy will remain larger than China's in nominal GDP until the end of the 2010s.^[3]

Table of presidential visits

President	Dates	Location(s)	Purpose
Richard Nixon	February 21–28, 1972	Shanghai, Peking (now known in English as Beijing), Hangchow	State Visit. Met with Party Chairman Mao Zedong and Premier Zhou Enlai.[4]
Gerald Ford	December 1–5, 1975	Peking	Official Visit. Met with Party Chairman Mao Zedong and Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping.[5]
Ronald Reagan	April 26 – May 1, 1984	Beijing, Xi'an, Shanghai	State Visit. Met with President Li Xiannian and Premier Zhao Ziyang.[6]
George H. W. Bush	February 25–27, 1989	Beijing	Met with President Yang Shangkun and Premier Li Peng. Also met with Prince Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia.[7]
Bill Clinton	June 24 – July 3, 1998	Xi'an, Beijing, Shanghai, Guilin, Hong Kong	State Visit. Met with President Jiang Zemin. Visited the Forbidden City and the Great Wall of China; also delivered a speech at Peking University.[8]
George W. Bush	October 18–21, 2001	Shanghai	Attended the APEC Summit Meeting.[9]
	February 21–22, 2002	Beijing	Met with President Jiang Zemin and Premier Zhu Rongji.[9]
	November 20–21, 2005	Beijing	Met with President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao.[9]
	August 7–11, 2008	Beijing	Attended the 2008 Summer Olympics opening ceremony. Met with President Hu Jintao and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.[9]
Barack Obama	November 15–18, 2009	Shanghai, Beijing	Part of a four-nation tour of Asia. Met with Shanghai Party Secretary Yu Zhengsheng and Mayor Han Zheng; also took part in a town hall meeting with Shanghai students. Met with President Hu Jintao, NPC Chairman Wu Bangguo and Premier Wen Jiabao. Visited the Forbidden City and the Great Wall of China.[10]
	November 10–12, 2014	Beijing	Attended the APEC Summit Meeting. Met with President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Keqiang and NPC Chairman Zhang Dejiang.[11]

Visits by former presidents

• Ulysses S. Grant visited Hong Kong, Canton (now Guangzhou), Shanghai, and Peking, where he spoke with the head of government, Prince Gong, and Li Hongzhang, Viceroy of Zhili, in 1878, during a world tour after leaving the presidency.^[12]
• Richard Nixon visited China at the personal invitation of Mao Zedong in February 1976.^[13] He visited again in mid–1979, and had a private meeting with Deng Xiaoping in Beijing.^[14]
• Jimmy Carter travelled to China, along with Carter Center personnel, for meetings with government and other officials on several occasions: July 1997,^[15] September 2003,^[16] December 2007,^[17] and January 2009.^[18]

Taiwan

Following the communist victory over the Nationalist-led government of the Republic of China in 1949, Mao Zedong established the People's Republic of China. The Nationalists were driven from the Chinese mainland onto Taiwan and several outlying islands. The United States did not formally recognize the People's Republic of China for 30 years after its founding. Instead, the US maintained diplomatic relations with the Republic of China government on Taiwan, recognizing it as the sole legitimate government of China.^[19][20] President Dwight D. Eisenhower made a state visit to Taiwan on June 18–19, 1960. He met with President Chiang Kai-shek in the capital city, Taipei.^[21]

See also

• China–United States relations
• Foreign policy of the United States
• Foreign relations of the United States

References

1. "Clinton seeks stronger Asia ties". BBC News. February 16, 2009. Retrieved April 7, 2010.
2. "USC US-China Institute: Ambassador Clark Randt on "The Crucial Relationship"". China.usc.edu. Retrieved December 2, 2010.
3. "World Economic Outlook". International Monetary Fund. International Monetary Fund. Retrieved October 12, 2014.
4. "Travels of President Richard M. Nixon". U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian. Archived from the original on 2011-12-04.
5. "Travels of President Gerald R. Ford". U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian. Archived from the original on 2011-12-04.
6. "Travels of President Ronald Reagan". U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian. Archived from the original on 2011-12-04.
7. "Travels of President George H. W. Bush". U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian. Archived from the original on 2011-12-04.
8. "Travels of President William J. Clinton". U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian. Archived from the original on 2011-12-04.
9. "Travels of President George W. Bush". U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian. Archived from the original on 2011-12-04.
10. "Travels of President Barack Obama". U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian.
11. "The President’s Trip to China, Burma and Australia". White House Office. November 2014. Archived from the original on 2015-11-08.
12. Brands, H. W. (2012). The Man Who Saved the Union: Ulysses S. Grant in War and Peace. Doubleday. pp. 591–592. ISBN 978-0385532419.
13. Black, Conrad (2007). Richard M. Nixon: A Life in Full. New York: Public Affairs Books. p. 1005. ISBN 978-1-58648-519-1.
14. Ambrose, Stephen E. (1991). Nixon: Ruin and Recovery 1973–1990. New York: Simon & Schuster. pp. 524–525. ISBN 978-0-671-69188-2.
15. "Visit to China". cartercenter.org. Atlanta, Georgia: The Carter Center. Retrieved February 18, 2016.
16. "President Carter's Japan and China Trip Report". cartercenter.org. Atlanta, Georgia: The Carter Center. Retrieved February 18, 2016.
17. "Trip Report by Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter to China, Dec. 2-8, 2007". cartercenter.org. Atlanta, Georgia: The Carter Center. Retrieved February 18, 2016.
18. "China Trip Report by Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter: Jan. 10-16, 2009". cartercenter.org. Atlanta, Georgia: The Carter Center. Retrieved February 18, 2016.
19. "The Chinese People Have Stood Up! 1949". China.usc.edu.
20. Sheng v. Rogers, District of Columbia Circuit Court, 1959-10-06
21. "Travels of President Dwight D. Eisenhower". U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian. Archived from the original on 2011-12-04.