Nixon and China

Nixon and China

“There’s an old Vulcan saying: “Only Nixon could go to China” ~ Spock, Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country.

HR Haldeman, in his book “Ends of Power,” claims Nixon came into office determined to change the relationship the USA had with communist China. Nixon had two decades of a history of vociferous antipathy to the PRC (People’s Republic of China).

In 1969, Russia and China have several military border skirmishes in Manchuria and the Soviets moved nuclear weapons to the border with the intention of nuking China’s growing nuclear power industry to prevent the People’s Republic of China from obtaining nuclear weapons. The USSR reached out the the USA for cooperation in this endeavor. But analysis form US scientists, a nuclear strike would spread radioactive fall-out across the far east including Korea, Japan and more and would affect US troops located in region.

Ultimately, in 1971, Nixon sent Kissinger to the PRC on a secret meeting which resulted in Nixon’s visit in 1972 where he met Mao-Tse-Tung. Mao was not well at this time and indeed would die four years later.

Haldeman notes that the CCP did want to use the USA as an offset to the Soviet Union. The Chinese were pressed by Soviet military activity on their northern border. But there was a threat more concerning to Mao- an internal attempt to wrest control of the Chinese Communist Party from him and it didn’t help that the Russians were likely behind this.

Lin Biao was the number two man in the Chinese system behind Mao. His relationship went back decades. Mao had often juggled his number two associates, but for some reason he made Biao his official successor. Both men were paranoid, however, and Biao’s wife, Ye Kun, was a schemer herself.

It is now well documented that Biao and associates, including his son and his wife, began plotting to take power from Mao. There was even a planned attack on Mao’s train as he toured southern China. In any event, Mao was soon informed of the 5–7–1 plot.

The official Chinese version of what ultimately happened was that Lin Biao found out Mao knew of the plot and fled toward Russia with his wife and son in a Hawker Siddeley Trident aircraft which ran out of fuel over Mongolia and crashed, killing all passengers aboard.

Western intelligence sources were skeptical of the official version, in some cases because their bias was that Biao would have been better off fleeing to the west for asylum. They are disregarding that the Biao plot involved Russian assistance.

But another version of the death of Biao and end to the plot was published in 1983.

The Conspiracy and Death of Lin Biao by Yao Ming-le was published in English in 1983. I have no information as to when the Chinese version was issued. In this telling, Mao found out about the plot, but kept it under wraps. He invited several guests to his compound for dinner on Sept 12–1971. In attendance were important people of the Chinese Communist Party and government including Zhou Enlai, Kang Sheng, Jiang Qing, and Wang Dongxing.

After a sumptuous dinner, conversations continued at which point Ye Qun suggested they depart so Mao could get some rest. The others agreed and departed shortly after but Mao asked Biao and his wife to stay a while longer. At 10;54PM, Biao and Ye Qun finally took their leave and got into their limousine to depart the compound. As their car drove down the hill from the villa, Red Guard soldiers fired rocket propelled grenades at the Red Flag model car, destroying it and killing all inside.

Meanwhile, Lin Biao’s son, Lin Liguo, fled to a Chinese airbase and took off with some of the other plotters in the Trident aircraft and was likely shot down by Chinese fighter jets. One of the members of the conspiracy killed himself, while others were captured and charged with the plot.

More details could be found in the official ‘top secret’ publication by the Chinese government titled “Criminal Materials of Lin Biao’s Anti-Party Clique, Parts 1, 2, 3, which was published September 3, 1972.

Nixon visited China in February of 1972, almost five months after the plot was foiled. Mao would die four years later. Nixon would resign from office in two years due to Watergate.

We can give Nixon credit for his desire to create rapprochement with China. But Russian aggression and the Biao plot gave serious push for Mao to open up to the US as a counterweight to Russian power.

China would continue on with a Maoist style economy until 1980, when Deng Xiaoping finally reached the top office of the Chinese government and began instituting his “Socialism with Chinese characteristics” which entailed introduction of some market style economics. f