A Research On The Backchannels Of Sino-us Rapproachement:(1969—1972)

In the 1960's, international politics has been greatly changed. The bi-polar system was gradually being replaced by a new multi-polar system. When Richard M. Nixon took office in 1969, he decided to normalize the US-Sino relations in order to change the disadvantagious position in US-Soviet competition. The Chinese leaders were also decided to initiate a Sino-US rapproachement as China was being threatened by a Soviet invasion while turmoil caused by the Great Cultural Revolution still had no sign of fading away.During the Sino-US rapprochement, besides the open Warsaw Talks, there also existed secret diplomatic channels which went through tiary countries between the White House and Chinese supreme leaders. These secret channels include Romania, Pakistan, Paris, and some rarely used channels, like Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Norway, Netherland, etc. Most existing researches on this subject are basically from memoirs or autobiographies, misunderstandings and mistakes are inevitable. This paper attempts to recover the history of secret diplomatic channels during Sino-US rapproachement by analyzing newly declassified US government diplomatic documents--Foreign Relations of United States (FRUS), and literature from China Central Compilation & Translation Bureau, and also some memoirs and newly released papers. Structurally, this paper includes 3 parts, including the introduction, the main body and the including remarks:Part One tries to analyze the background of Sino-US rapproachement, to begin with the split of Western capitalist side and disintegration of socialist side, emphasize the decisive effect of Soviet factor. Then attempt to analyze the perspectives of both sides on Sino-US relations.Part Two is mainly to reveal the details of backchannels in Sino-US rapproachement, and give some remarks and analysis. Nixon tried to make secret contact with Beijing through the Presidents of France, Pakistan and Romania in early 1969. During his visit to Romania and Pakistan, he expressed his wish to rebuild US-Sino relations, hoping presidents of both Romania and Pakistan to mediate between China and the US. But it was very difficult because China and the US had been hostile to each other for 20 years. After two years of cautious observations, Beijing finally accepted the envoy of US President. Romania and Pakistan played a significant role in mediating between China and the US. With the help of Pakistani President Yahya, Kissinger finally made his secret trip to Beijing in 1971, and thus Sino-US relations stepped into a new stage.Part Three particularly introduces the founding of Paris backchannel and its role in the rapproachement of Sino-US relations. The Paris backchannel, to some degree, was built up by Kissinger personally. Since 1969, Kissinger constantly attempted to contact with Chinese leaders through his personal relationships, but he didn't succeed until his secret trip to China. During his first visit to Beijing, Kissinger and Premier Chou En-lai decided to use the Chinese embassy in Paris as the location for secret contact. Pakistani and Romanian backchannels were no longer used. Soon, Paris channel made a lot of information transmission and preparations for Kissinger's second visit to Beijing, General Haig's advanced group's trip to China and President Nixon's journey to China.The last part is to review and conclude the process of Sino-US rapproachement. According to'Ping-Pong Diplomacy', Kissinger's secret trip to China and Nixon's 1972 visit to China, we can divide the process of Sino-US rapproachement into three stages. Pakistan, Romania and Paris played different roles respectively. In addition, some domestic researches mentioned that Premier Chou En-lai had been using Nixon's personal assistant Matthew Thompson as his secret channel between Chou himself and Nixon. By browsing materials both home and abroad, this paper finds out that it is just a misunderstanding of John Ehrlichman's The China Card: A Novel.