Jimmy Carter and China
The China-US relationship that Nixon and Carter established defined the world for decades. Now, it may soon become just a distant memory
02.01.2025
Former US President Jimmy Carter died on December 29, 2024, at the age of 100. Carter, a one-term president, was known for his efforts to confront economic and diplomatic challenges, such as the Oil Crisis and the Iranian Revolution, but he was ultimately defeated by Republican candidate Ronald Reagan. Perhaps even more importantly, he is remembered for his post-presidency, during which he led efforts to promote human rights, peace, and anti-disease initiatives around the globe, receiving a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. Carter also had a deep and enduring legacy in US-China relations. It was under his leadership that the United States established diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China, setting the stage for a relationship that defined the world for decades.
Carter was not the first to initiate America’s rapprochement with China; that distinction belongs to President Richard Nixon, who made a fateful trip to China, where he met with Chinese leader Mao Zedong. The United States had not established relations with the PRC after its founding on October 1, 1949, instead continuing to recognize the Republic of China (ROC)—led by the Kuomintang, which retreated from the Chinese mainland to Taiwan after losing the civil war to the Communist Party—as the sole legitimate government of all of China.
Nixon’s visit in 1972, built on the work of officials such as US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, dramatically shifted the global balance of power, as it strengthened America’s hand against the Soviet Union. China, which was once close to the Soviet Union after the Communist Party’s victory but later grew to be its adversary, entered into a de facto alliance with the US. The meeting was followed by the opening of an American Liaison Office in China and closer relations, including another visit by Nixon’s successor, Gerald Ford. However, a complete establishment of diplomatic relations was not yet achieved.
After Carter became president in 1977, he was encouraged by his aides to fully establish relations with the PRC. Carter himself was born on October 1, the day of the PRC’s founding, which some said was like destiny. His first encounter with China was in 1949, when he was a US naval officer. His submarine was dispatched to the city of Qingdao in Shandong Province, allowing him to set foot in the country; just a few kilometers away on the other side was Deng Xiaoping, who was a military commander at the time and was the leader of China by the time Carter was president.
A key official in establishing diplomatic relations was Zbigniew Brzezinski, Carter’s National Security Advisor. Brzezinski, who advocated closer relations with China to contain the Soviet Union, visited the country in 1978, where he held talks with Chinese officials about the establishment of relations. The efforts by the Carter administration ultimately led to a statement by Carter in December 1978 that the US would be establishing diplomatic relations with the PRC on January 1, 1979, cutting relations and ending its military alliance with Taiwan. He also announced the US would acknowledge the PRC’s claim that Taiwan was a part of China; this policy was eventually named the “One China Policy.” In reaction, the US Congress passed the Taiwan Relations Act, which ensured enduring but unofficial relations with Taiwan, authorizing US military aid and sales to Taiwan.
Just a month later, from January 29 to February 5, Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping visited the US. The relationship continued to blossom afterward, with the US granting “most favored nation” designation to China, eradicating many barriers in trade, and inviting Chinese students to America, whose numbers increased to hundreds of thousands. The close relationship continued even under Ronald Reagan, the anti-communist conservative who beat Carter in a landslide in 1980.
After Carter left office in 1981, his relationship with China endured. His non-profit group, The Carter Center, played a significant role in providing help and educational opportunities to disabled children in rural China and assisting the Chinese government in organizing village-level elections. Carter himself also visited China several times, where he went to the countryside and earthquake zones, including in 2008 when he and his wife Rosalynn helped build shelters for the victims of the Sichuan earthquake. After his death, President Xi Jinping sent a letter of condolence to President Joe Biden. Many Chinese also mourned him on the internet; he has been popularly given the nickname “Meirenzhong” (benevolent American) by the Chinese.
With Carter’s death being just a few days before the 46th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and the US, the mood today couldn’t be more different. In the last decade, relations between the two countries have seen a rapid deterioration on almost every front, with increasing flashpoints over a new trade war, Taiwan, trade, and technology. Furthermore, Donald Trump, who is set to return to the presidency soon, espouses a starkly different view on relations with China. While Carter’s cabinet favored closer relations with China, Trump’s cabinet is made up of China hawks; while Carter worked to expand trade with China, Trump wants to impose tariffs; while Carter welcomed Chinese students with open arms, many people around Trump want to severely restrict or even ban Chinese students. The China-US relationship that Nixon and Carter established defined the world for decades. Now, it may soon become just a distant memory.