It’s been 54 years since President Richard Nixon flew to China and shook hands with Communist Party Chair Mao Zedong.
That moment was the culmination of years of secret meetings by National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger and Chinese top officials. And in February 1972, it marked a turning point in American foreign policy. Nixon believed opening America to China would lead to it becoming a more responsible global actor.
For decades, presidents on both sides acted under the same assumption — trade would encourage openness and economic growth would lead to reform. And political change would follow.
The problem is, it hasn’t panned out that way.
Instead, China has grown richer, stronger and more repressive.
The China that exists today — exploiting its dominant position in access to rare earth minerals as economic leverage over America, surveilling its own people on an industrial scale and threatening Taiwan — is in no small part the product of five decades of engagement where leaders never extracted reforms. Instead, China is now a formidable rival.
President Trump and his aides are in China negotiating with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Among the people there: U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Rubio isn’t your average diplomat to go to China. In 2020, China banned Rubio from entering the country and placed sanctions on him because of his longtime criticism of the Chinese Communist Party and its treatment of the Uyghur minority population.
While en route to China, Rubio was already making headlines. Reports have surfaced that China quietly renamed Rubio “Marco Lu” to bypass its own travel ban and photos of Rubio on Air Force One wearing a gray Nike tracksuit have gone viral on social media. But his trip to China is about more than a tracksuit on Air Force One or the pseudonym he’s traveling under.
Rubio represents a departure from the past half-century of U.S.-China policy.
The son of Cuban immigrants who fled communism, Rubio has long understood that authoritarian regimes don’t change their ways because they become wealthier. Prosperity doesn’t soften tyranny; in fact, it often has the opposite effect — financing and strengthening it. Both Cuba and Venezuela have proved that to be the case.
Rubio’s perspective has been shaped by his family’s history, not from inside the D.C. Beltway.
There have been points where I’ve been critical of Rubio, but his attendance brings a sobering realism that has sometimes been overlooked in conversations about China.
When Kissinger flew to Beijing in secret to set the stage for Nixon’s historic visit, both men believed opening the door to China was a strategic decision that the moment called for — and history has largely agreed.
This time around, the stakes are higher. As Rubio told Sean Hannity on Fox News, China is “our top political challenge geopolitically, and it’s also the most important relationship for us to manage.
“It’s a big, powerful country. It’s going to continue to grow. But we’re going to have interests of ours that are going to be in conflict with interests of theirs, and to avoid wars and maintain peace and stability in the world we’re going to have to manage those.”
That’s a lesson 54 years in the making.
Nixon’s opening to China was historic, and at the time strategically smart. But the belief that wealth would alter the trajectory of China hasn’t paid off.
A new chapter in U.S.-China relations is overdue — one grounded in hard-eyed realism, not wishful thinking. And Rubio is uniquely suited to help usher that in.
The gray tracksuit was a nice photo op. But there’s nothing casual about this trip.
Mary Anna Mancuso is a member of the Miami Herald Editorial Board. Her email: mmancuso@miamiherald.com