Published : 09/07/2025

From July 9 to 11, 1971, Henry Kissinger, the then U.S. National Security Advisor made a secret visit to China.

At 12:15 pm that day, a civil aviation plane from Pakistan quietly landed at Nanyuan Airport in Beijing.

At the same time, senior members of the Chinese government, including Ye Jianying (葉劍英), Huang Hua (黃華), and Xiong Xianghui (熊向暉), were waiting on the tarmac.

This secret visitor was Henry Kissinger, the U.S. National Security Advisor and envoy of U.S. President Nixon.

No formal ceremony was held at the scene, and after a brief greeting, both parties left together by car, heading to the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse.

Before Kissinger's visit, China and the United States had been isolated and confronted each other for years. To open the door for communication, Zhou Enlai (周恩來) accepted the U.S. suggestion and agreed to send a senior envoy to secretly visit China.

Kissinger's visit to China was conducted in secret while he was visiting Pakistan, with the operation code-named "Operation Polo," implying that, like Marco Polo's ancient journey to the East, this trip was full of mystery and the unknown.

Kissinger once revealed that President Nixon had given him two tasks: one was to discuss the date and preparations for Nixon's visit to China, and the other was to conduct preliminary talks.

Kissinger stayed in Beijing for only 48 hours, during which he had over 17 hours of talks with Zhou Enlai.

Then, on July 16, China and the United States issued a joint communiqué announcing that U.S. President Nixon had been invited to visit China at an appropriate time before May 1972, which shocked the world.