Diplomatic Opinion – Ali Tuygan

May 18, 2026

On April 10, 1971, the US table tennis team arrived in China. Later that year, in July 1971, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger made a secret trip to China, paving the way for President Nixon’s visit. On February 27, 1972, the US President and his Chinese hosts agreed to the joint “Shanghai Communique,” in which both nations pledged to work toward the full normalization of diplomatic relations. As part of this effort, on May 1, 1973, the US opened a liaison office in Beijing to handle all matters in the US-China relationship “except the strictly formal diplomatic aspects of the relationship.” China created a counterpart office in Washington the same year. Finally, on January 1, 1979, the US recognized the People’s Republic of China as the sole legitimate government of China and established diplomatic relations with it.