ABSTRACT
The Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford administrations emphasized common US-People's Republic of China (PRC) strategic interests in opposing international "hegemony" and encouraged closer US contacts with the PRC, but they did not significantly alter formal US diplomatic and defense ties with Taiwan. The congressional visitors frequently claimed that Peking appeared unlikely—at least for the near term—to allow bilateral problems like Taiwan to lead to a serious reversal in US-PRC relations. Congressional visitors voiced general agreement regarding developments and trends in PRC foreign policy. The PRC claimed that Taiwan was a province of China, that its "liberation" was China's internal affair, and that all US military forces had to be withdrawn from Taiwan. The PRC's approach to the sensitive issue of Taiwan was closely intertwined with the evolution of Peking's policy toward the United States. The dramatic changes in PRC leadership in the 1970s had a considerable impact on some congressional visitors to China.
