Date of U.S.-China summit announced

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32778, 1 December 1971, Page 17

Date of U.S.-China summit announced

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright; WASHINGTON, November 30. President Nixon will arrive in Peking on February 21 to begin his historic visit aimed at improving relations with China after more than 20 years enmity between its Communist rulers and the United States.

The eagerly-awaited date was announced jointly by the White House and Peking yesterday, almost five months after the Presidential adviser on foreign affairs, Dr Henry Kissinger, began negotiations with the Chinese Prime Minister (Mr Chou En-Lai) during a secret mission to the Chinese capital last July.

The date of the beginning of Mr Nixon’s visit was the only detail disclosed in a onesentence statement. The White House said that more information would be announced later.

Mr Nixon will fly to China three months before undertaking a similar peace mission to the Soviet Union next May, and about two weeks before the first primary election in the Presidential campaign is held in New Hampshire on March 7. Mr Nixor’s journeys to the capitals of the two main Communist Powers are widely regarded as having important overtones in the campaign, in which he is expected to seek election on bis record of winding down the Vietnam war and trying to find ways of reaching peaceful agreements with the Communists.

The timing of his visit to Peking will guarantee him plenty of headlines while his Democratic opponents seek votes in the New Hampshire primary, one of a series of state elections designed to win delegates who will choose Presidential candidates at party conventions in the summer.

Mr Nixon has already dominated the front pages during the last week by issuing daily announcements on foreign‘policy developments, including the summit meetings he has arranged with five foreign heads of Governments over the next few

weeks to discuss his journeys to China and Russia.

Last Wednesday the White House announced a meeting between Mr Nixon and President Pompidou of France. Then, over the next four, days, came the news that Mr Nixon would also meet the British Prime Minister (Mr Heath), the West German Chancellor (Mr Willy Brandt) the Canadian Prime Minister (Mr Trudeau) and the Japanese Prime Minister (Mr Sato). ‘Undermined’ Dr Kissinger’s son, David, aged 10, who predicted that Mr Nixon would make his journey to Peking next March, is annoyed with the White House Press Secretary (Mr Ronald Ziegler) for questioning his credibility. Dr Kissinger good-humour-edly told reporters last night that David had been reading his press notices ever since he disclosed what his father and Mr Ziegler had apparently been keeping a secret.

Dr Kissinger said that his son came into his bedroom at San Clemente, California, incensed by a newspaper report that Mr Ziegler had told reporters to disregard him. “David feels that Mr Ziegler undermined his credibility, at least as far as his classmates were concerned,” Dr Kissinger said. Long in Tokyo

The Flying Tiger Airlines pilot, Captain Eigen Long arrived in Tokyo from Wake Island at 2.3 p.m. New Zealand time today, near the end of his record-breaking flight over both the North and South Pole and twice across the Equator. Flying a twinengined Piper Navajo, Captain Long, who is 44, left San Francisco on November 5 on a 23,000-mile flight. He became the first man to fly solo over the South Pole, accomplishing this feat two weeks after crossing the North Pole.—Tokyo, November 30.