<P> President Gerald Ford visited the PRC in 1975 and reaffirmed American interest in normalizing relations with Beijing . Shortly after taking office in 1977, President Jimmy Carter again reaffirmed the goals of the Shanghai Communiqué . Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, Carter's National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, and senior staff member of the National Security Council Michel Oksenberg encouraged Carter to seek full diplomatic and trade relations with China . </P> <P> Although Brzezinski sought to quickly establish a security relationship with Beijing to counter the Soviet Union, Carter sided with Vance in believing that such a deal would threaten existing U.S. - Soviet relations, including the SALT II negotiations . Thus, the administration decided to cautiously pursue political normalization and not military relations . Vance, Brzezinski, and Oksenberg traveled to Beijing in early 1978 to work with Leonard Woodcock, then head of the liaison office, to lay the groundwork to do so . The United States and the People's Republic of China announced on December 15, 1978 that the two governments would establish diplomatic relations on January 1, 1979 . </P> <P> In the Joint Communiqué on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations, dated January 1, 1979, the United States transferred diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing . The US reiterated the Shanghai Communiqué's acknowledgment of the Chinese position that there is only one China and that Taiwan is a part of China; Beijing acknowledged that the American people would continue to carry on commercial, cultural, and other unofficial contacts with the people of Taiwan . </P> <P> Much like the Nixon visit to Beijing six years earlier, the formal establishment of Sino - US ties met with a mixed response from many countries . Taiwan, although fully expecting this step, nonetheless expressed disappointment at having not been consulted first . The reaction of the communist world was similar to 1972, with the Soviet Union and its allies in Eastern Europe mostly being noncommittal, Romania welcoming the move, and Cuba and Albania being strongly against it . North Korea issued a statement congratulating "our brotherly neighbors for ending long - hostile relations with the US". </P>

When did the us normalize relations with china