Soon after Nixon’s China trip, there was a lull in Sino-American relations from 1972 to 1978. Richard Nixon’s initial opening to China was followed by a period in which the projected normalization of diplomatic ties between the two powers was allowed to languish. By the spring of 1978, the Jimmy Carter administration had become more enthusiastic about establishing formal diplomatic relations with Beijing. At the time, Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping was eager to proceed with normalization in order to enlist Washington to oppose the Soviet Union. But more importantly, China would be able to get access to Western science and technology for his “Reform and Opening up” policy. On December 15, 1978, President Carter announced the agreement on the establishment of diplomatic relations between the US and China. This relationship was premised primarily on US-China shared opposition to the Soviet Union (Mann 1998, 78–95; Kissinger 2011, 348–76).

During the 1980 presidential campaign, Ronald Reagan suggested on several occasions that if elected president, he would restore ‘official relations’ with Taiwan. When Reagan took office in January 1981, China became one of the principal battlegrounds for infighting within the new administration. After a year and a half of diplomatic maneuvering between the two sides, China and the United States signed the August 17, 1982, communique, restricting US arms sales to Taiwan.