ABSTRACT
Nixon and Mao began to build mutual respect and confidence by chatting in Mao's study in Zhongnanhai. The Shanghai Communiqué mentioned the two governments desire for more cultural contacts, as well as for mutually beneficial bilateral trade. It was the successful result of personal relationships between Kissinger and Zhou, and between Nixon and Mao. On July 15, 1971, President Richard Nixon went on live television and told the world that National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger had just visited the People's Republic of China and that he, the president, would be visiting China soon. In November 1973, Kissinger told Zhou and Mao that Nixon intended to normalize relations with China by the middle of 1976. Nixon stressed the threat the Soviet Union posed to China, and asked Mao if he considered American aggression to be a potential danger to China. The Kissinger-Zhou interaction was as important to the establishment of the new US-China relationship as was the Nixon-Mao interaction.
