NIXON TO VISIT CHINA BEFORE
Kissinger Makes Secret Visit To Peking First Thaw In 22 Years
LOS ANGELES, July 15 (AP)
PRESIDENT NIXON announced Thursday night he will vist Communist China before next May at the invitation of premier Chou En Lai.
Nixon, speaking from Burbank, California said the visit was decided during conference between Chou and Dr. Henry A. Kissinger, White House adviser on National Security Affairs, from July 9 to 11.
President Nixon said he will undertake ‘what I deeply hope will become a journey for peace’ to Communist China before next May to confer with Premier Chou En-Lai.
Nixon dramatically announced in a nationally televised and broadcast address a mission that will symbolize a thaw, after 22 years, in relations between the United States and the People’s Republic of China.
He said he would go to Mainland China at the invitation of Premier Chou. He said he sent Dr. Henry Kissinger, his nations’s security adviser, to Peking for talks with Chou July 9 to 11.
Kissinger had been on an announced diplomatic mission, but his trip to Peking was done of total secrecy, during days on which he was said to have been ill in Pakistan.
The announcement, issued simultaneously in Peking, said:
“Knowing of President Nixon’s expressed desire to visit the People’s Republic of China, Premier Chou En-Lai, on behalf of the government of the People’s Republic of China, has extended an invitation to President Nixon to visit China at an appropriate date before May 1972. President Nixon has accepted the invitation with pleasure.”
“The meeting between the leaders of China and the United States is to seek the normalization of relations between the two countries and also to exchange views on questions of concern to the two sides.’
Nixon said in anticipation of inevitable speculation about U.S. policy, he wanted to make clear that ‘our action in seeking a new relationship with the People’s Republic of China will not be at the expense of our old friends.’
Taipei Shocked
In Washinton, the Ambassader of Nationalist China, James C.H. Shen, said news of the trip ‘will be received with considerable shock and disbelie in Taipei.’ the capital of the Natonalist Chinese Government of Formosa.
Nixon said the mission and polity ‘Is not’ directed against any other nation. We seek friendly relations with all nations.
‘Any nation can be our friend without being any other nation’s enemy’, he said.
He said he had taken the actions because of a conviction, that relations will gain from an easing of tensions and a better relationship between the United States and China.
‘It is in this spirit that I will undertake what I deeply hope will become a journey for peace, not just for our generation but for future generations on this earth we share together,’ Nixon said.
Nixon has been shaping a policy of eaze i restriction on trade and travel between the United States and mainland China. He has not disclosed his intentions with regard to Communist Chinese admission to the United Nations.
At one news conference, Nixon said he hoped and expected to visit mainland China ‘sometime, in some capacity.
But his announcement that he is going to China as President was a total surprise. There was no advance text of his brief speech it lasted less than five minutes.
Nationalist China’s Ambassador in Washington said he had about a half hour’s notice of the Nixon statement. ‘I couldn’t believe my ears.’ Shen said.
Kissinger, who had been conferring with Nixon at the Western White House in San Clemente accompanied the President on the helicopter flight to Burbank for the broadcast address.
Thant Hails
U.N. Secretary-General U. Thant has hailed President Nixon’s announcement that he would visit Communist China and said the move ‘opened a new chapter in the history of international relations.’
A spokesman for Thant issued this statement a few minutes after Nixon told of his invitation from Peking in a televised Statement to the nation Thursday night:
The Secretary-Genreal warmly welcomes President Nixon’s announcement of his acceptance of Premier Chou En-Lai’s invitation next few months.
“This development has opened a new chapter in the history of international relations and it augurs well not only for the relations between two great countries but also for the future of the United Nations.”
Reaction
Democrats, including the party’s only declared presidential aspirant, were quick to praise President Nixon’s announcement Thursday night that he plans to visit Communist China sometime before next May.
‘I applaud the President’s imagination and judgment in accepting this opportunity to open up more normal relations with the people of China,’ said Senator George S. McGovern, democratic South Dakota.
Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield of Montana, long an advocate of improved relations with the Chinese mainland said he was ‘astounded, belighted and happy’ over the president’s announcement. Mansfield said he had no advance word from the Western White House.
Reference : Indonesian Observer, 16.07.1971