U.S.-China Relations Warmed by 30 Years of Cooperation

President Richard Nixon, left, shakes hands with Chinese communist party leader Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-Tung), right, during Nixon's groundbreaking trip to China on February 21, 1972, that eventually led to full diplomatic relations between the two countries and a significant change in global relations during the Cold War.

Table tennis had as much to do with the opening of relations between the United States and China as secret negotiations and diplomatic receptions. Here China's Li Fu-Yeng, left, returns the ball to U.S. team member Fuarnado Roberts during a series of goodwill matches at Nassau Coliseum in New York on April 21, 1972.

Chinese Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping, left, and President Carter face the press in the Oval Office at the White House in January 1979 to discuss the new diplomatic ties between the United States and China.

Chinese Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping, center, sits in a model of the lunar rover vehicle during a tour of the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, February 2, 1979. His visit to the United States coincided with the normalization of relations between Washington and Beijing.

President Ronald Reagan, left, points to a printed circuit board that he soldered during a tour of the Foxboro Plant in Shanghai, China, on April 30, 1984. At right is a Chinese worker at the plant.

Former President Carter and China's top leader, Deng Xiaoping, embrace during their meeting in Beijing on June 29, 1987, during Carter’s private visit to China.

President George H.W. Bush, center, waves to the crowds in Tiananmen Square on February 25, 1989. Behind Bush is the entrance to the Forbidden City that had been home to China's final emperors. Bush was the U.S. envoy to China earlier in his career.

Former President Carter, upper left, and former first lady Rosalynn Carter, rear middle, attempt to organize a group photo with some Chinese student performers during a visit in 1991 to the Beijing No. 1 Deaf-Mute School.

President Clinton, right, gestures during a joint news conference with Chinese President Jiang Zemin in Washington on October 29, 1997. Clinton and Jiang carried on a spirited debate about freedom, democracy, dissent and the freedom to worship during the press conference.

President George W. Bush, left, meets with Chinese President Hu Jintao on November 20, 2005, in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Bush was on a state visit to promote freedom and democracy, but also to discuss pressing economic issues between the two nations.