When Nixon met Mao – 50 years on

It was the meeting that ‘changed the world’ at the height of the Cold War, writes David Harding

Chairman Mao (left) welcomes Richard Nixon to his house in Beijing in 1972 (AFP via Getty)

Not many diplomatic summits end up getting turned into operas, even though Liz Truss and Sergei Lavrov have given it a good go.

But 50 years ago this month, one of the most memorable, high-profile and symbolic meetings between two world leaders took place when Richard Nixon headed to China to meet Mao Zedong. It was the meeting that “changed the world” at the height of the Cold War between the planet’s most powerful country and its most populous – two countries which had not exchanged a word for 25 years.

President Nixon deemed the event so seismic that he addressed the American people live on television just to announce he was planning to visit China.