US China Negotiations

The US was in a difficult position negotiating with China because of the bigger stakes of their negotiating. China had not been open to the west and Mao was close to death, so they were able to be bold in negotiations, while the US feared an unpopular settlement or backlash from a failed negotiation. This helped China in the beginning to seemingly gain Taiwan, but the US overall won the negotiations by being vague enough to successfully open relations without fully conceding anything meaningful. The obscure wording used helped the US push off any problems they ran into in negotiations to the future after relations had improved.