The phrase "Nixon goes to China", "Nixon to China", or "Nixon in China" is a historical reference to US President Richard Nixon's 1972 visit to the People's Republic of China, where he met with Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong. Its basic import is that Nixon's well-established reputation as an anti-Communist "hawk" gave him political cover against domestic criticism for a move that might have been portrayed as conciliating a geopolitical rival. The metaphor is often expressed as the observation "Only Nixon could go to China" or "It took Nixon to go to China". Context The phrase had originated before Nixon's actual visit to China. An early use of the phrase is found in a December 1971 U.S. News & World Report interview with US Senate Democratic Leader Mike Mansfield in a section summary lead that read, "'Only a 'Nixon' Could Go to China." The actual quote from Mansfield, which he prefaces by noting he had heard it said earlier, was "Only a Republican, perhaps only a Nixon, could have made this break and gotten away with it." When he met President Nixon, Chairman Mao also joked that "I voted for you during your last election." Nixon laughed and said "you voted for the lesser of two evils," and Mao replied, "I like rightists, I am comparatively happy when these people on the right come into power." Outcome Nixon's visit to China and Shanghai Communiqué was of particular significance because it marked the beginning of a thaw in China–United States relations. Internationally, Nixon's visit played a role in leading to the September 1972 Japan-China Joint Communiqué between Mao Zedong and Kakuei Tanaka. During the negotiation, Mao also stated that he preferred the "rightist" party in Japan as well as the United States. In history and politics The Nixon going to China phenomenon has also been compared to a more generic spectrum of left-wing and right-wing policies, and a proposed "Nixon paradox" describing which policies are difficult to implement based on a politician's declared values (left or right primarily). Similar historical events (pre-1972) The author and historian Zachary Karabell compared US President Chester Arthur reforming the civil service system in the early 1880s to Nixon going to China since Arthur himself had been a product of the spoils system and helped get rid of it by the Pendleton Act. The decision of US President Dwight Eisenhower, a former World War II