By Devindra Sethi
By 1970, Mao Zedong had realized that the Soviet Union was no longer willing to advance his vision, and in a dramatic about turn, he opened negotiations with the United States, talks that culminated in the landmark visit to China by President Richard Nixon in 1972. Geopolitics met geo-economics, and the Middle Kingdom benefitted from the lavish largess of the West, eventually becoming the factory of the world. And, 40 years later, a once poor China had become the world’s largest foreign exchange holder and had lifted 400 million of its citizens out of poverty.
As a result of such progress, the Chinese Communist Party now has a global vision of power. With a distinctly mercantilist approach to trade, and its clever ability to keep the yuan undervalued, China’s international reach is long and deep.
Read the full story at The Diplomat