The phrase "Nixon goes to China", "Nixon to China", or "Nixon in China"[1] is a historical reference to
U.S. PresidentRichard Nixon's
1972 visit to the
People's Republic of China, where he met with
Chinese Communist Party ChairmanMao Zedong. Its basic import is that Nixon's well-established reputation as an anti-Communist "hawk" gave him political cover against domestic criticism for a move that might have been portrayed as conciliating a geopolitical rival. The metaphor is often expressed as the observation "Only Nixon could go to China" or "It took Nixon to go to China".
Context
The phrase had originated before Nixon's actual visit to China. An early use of the phrase is found in a December 1971 U.S. News & World Report interview with US
Senate Democratic LeaderMike Mansfield in a section summary lead that read, "'Only a 'Nixon' Could Go to China." The actual quote from Mansfield, which he prefaces by noting he had heard it said earlier, was "Only a Republican, perhaps only a Nixon, could have made this break and gotten away with it."[2]
When he met President Nixon, Chairman Mao also joked that "I voted for you during your last election." Nixon laughed and said "you voted for the lesser of two evils,"[3] and Mao replied, "I like
rightists, I am comparatively happy when these people on the right come into power."[3][4][5]
Internationally, Nixon's visit played a role in leading to the September 1972
Japan–China Joint Communiqué between Mao Zedong and
Kakuei Tanaka.[7][8] During the negotiation, Mao also stated that he preferred the "rightist" party in Japan as well as the United States.[9]
In politics, economics and history
The Nixon going to China phenomenon has also been compared to a more generic spectrum of left-wing and right-wing policies, and a proposed "Nixon paradox" describing which policies are difficult to implement based on a politician's declared values (left or right primarily).[5] Two theoretical economic models [10][11] suggest that these surprising policy initiatives can politically benefit the policy initiator. Assuming that politicians who are in power have superior information concerning the effects of policies, if new information is obtained supporting a right-wing shift in policy, a left-wing politician can more credibly signal that the policy is an appropriate course of action than a right-wing politician, because ‘‘voters will infer that the left-wing politician is motivated by objective facts, rather than his party’s natural ideological tendencies’’.[12] This phenomenon was empirically supported in two experiments conducted in Germany and Israel. Politicians who adopt policies that are incongruent with their policy reputation enjoy a more favorable public reaction.[13]
Similar historical events (pre-1972)
The author and historian
Zachary Karabell compared US President
Chester Arthur reforming the civil service system in the early 1880s to Nixon going to China since Arthur himself had been a product of the
spoils system and helped get rid of it by the
Pendleton Act.[14][15]
French PresidentCharles de Gaulle's decision to end the
Algerian War, withdraw from
Algeria, and give Algeria its
independence in 1962 has sometimes been described as a Nixon-to-China moment since de Gaulle's reputation and prestige as a French war hero in World War II helped win support for Algerian independence from most of the French public.[17][18][19]
In Canada, a notable aspect of the 1985 decision of the
Ontario government to extend full funding to Catholic schools was that the ruling
Progressive Conservatives had been regarded as articulating the viewpoint of rural Protestants, who were often hostile to Roman Catholicism, especially on issues related to education. In contrast to Nixon's China policy, however, the decision led to political damage for the Progressive Conservatives, who were reduced to a minority government in the subsequent election, partly as a result of having alienated their Protestant base, despite the other political parties also backing the move.
Conservative Australian Prime Minister
John Howard's implementation of
strict gun control measures in the aftermath of the
Port Arthur massacre. Howard had to overcome "vociferous opposition from many in his own party and almost all members of his Coalition partner"[22] to do so, with Labor Prime Minister
Julia Gillard later stating that there was no one who could have done it better.
Jim Hoagland for the Eugene Register-Guard compared US President
George W. Bush's embrace of multilateralism on Iraq in late 2002 as a Nixon-to-China moment.[23] Some people likewise considered Bush's nuclear deals with
North Korea, which he declared to be part of the
axis of evil in 2002, in 2007 and with
India in 2008 to be Nixon-to-China moments.[24][25]
U.S. President
Donald Trumpmeets with
North Korean leader
Kim Jong-un, becoming the first U.S. president to meet with any North Korean head of state while in office since the end of the
Korean War in 1953. Considered Trump's "Nixon-to-China" moment.[27]
In popular culture
The expression was used in the 1991 film Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country in which "only Nixon could go to China" is quoted by
Spock as "an old
Vulcan proverb".[28] In the context of the film, itself an allegory of thawing relations between the US and the former Soviet Union, it is given as a reason why
James T. Kirk, a character with a history of armed conflict with the
Klingons and a personal enmity for them after his son's death, should escort their chancellor to Earth for peace negotiations with the
Federation.[29][30]
^Girling, J. L. S. (1971). "Nixon's "Algeria"-Doctrine and Disengagement in Indochina". Pacific Affairs. 44 (4): 527–544.
doi:
10.2307/2756610.
JSTOR2756610.