It\u2019s been 54 years since President Richard Nixon flew to China and shook hands with Communist Party Chair Mao Zedong.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
For decades, presidents on both sides acted under the same assumption \u2014 trade would encourage openness and economic growth would lead to reform. And political change would follow.<\/p>\n
The problem is, it hasn\u2019t panned out that way.<\/p>\n
Instead, China has grown richer, stronger and more repressive.<\/p>\n
The China that exists today \u2014 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 \u2014 is in no small part the product of five decades of engagement where leaders never extracted reforms. Instead, China is now a formidable rival.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Rubio isn\u2019t your average diplomat to go to China. In 2020, China banned Rubio<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n While en route to China, Rubio was already making headlines. Reports have surfaced that China quietly renamed Rubio \u201cMarco Lu<\/a>\u201d to bypass its own travel ban and photos of Rubio on Air Force One wearing a gray Nike tracksuit<\/a> 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\u2019s traveling under.<\/p>\n Rubio represents a departure from the past half-century of U.S.-China policy.<\/p>\n The son of Cuban immigrants who fled communism, Rubio has long understood that authoritarian regimes don\u2019t change their ways because they become wealthier. Prosperity doesn\u2019t soften tyranny; in fact, it often has the opposite effect \u2014 financing and strengthening it. Both Cuba and Venezuela have proved that to be the case.<\/p>\n Rubio\u2019s perspective has been shaped by his family\u2019s history, not from inside the D.C. Beltway.<\/p>\n There have been points where I\u2019ve been critical of Rubio, but his attendance brings a sobering realism that has sometimes been overlooked in conversations about China.<\/p>\n When Kissinger flew to Beijing in secret to set the stage for Nixon\u2019s historic visit, both men believed opening the door to China was a strategic decision that the moment called for \u2014 and history has largely agreed.<\/p>\n