<P> The end of the 1960s brought a period of transformation . For China, when American president Johnson decided to wind down the Vietnam war in 1968, it gave China an impression that the US had no interest of expanding in Asia anymore while the USSR became a more serious threat as it intervened in Czechoslovakia to displace a communist government and might well interfere in China . </P> <P> This became an especially important concern for the People's Republic of China after the Sino - Soviet border conflict of 1969 . The PRC was diplomatically isolated and the leadership came to believe that improved relations with the United States would be a useful counterbalance to the Soviet threat . Zhou Enlai, the Premier of China, was at the forefront of this effort with the committed backing of Chairman Mao Zedong . In 1969, the United States initiated measures to relax trade restrictions and other impediments to bilateral contact, to which China responded . However, this rapprochement process was stalled by the Vietnam War where China was supporting the enemies of the United States . Communication between Chinese and American leaders, however, was conducted with Pakistan and Poland as intermediaries . </P> <P> In the United States, academics such as John K. Fairbank and A. Doak Barnett pointed to the need to deal realistically with the Beijing government, while organizations such as the National Committee on United States--China Relations sponsored debates to promote public awareness . Many saw the specter of Communist China behind communist movements in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, but a growing number concluded that if the PRC would align with the US it would mean a major redistribution of global power against the Soviets . Mainland China's market of nearly one billion consumers appealed to American business . Senator J. William Fulbright, Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, held a series of hearings on the matter . </P> <P> Richard M. Nixon mentioned in his inaugural address that the two countries were entering an era of negotiation after an era of confrontation . Although Nixon during his 1960 presidential campaign had vociferously supported Chiang Kai - Shek, by the second half of the decade, he increasingly began to speak of there "being no reason to leave China angry and isolated". Nixon's election as president in 1968 was initially met with hostility by Beijing--an editorial in the People's Daily denounced him as "a chieftain whom the capitalist world had turned to out of desperation". Nixon believed it was in the American national interest to forge a relationship with China, even though there were enormous differences between the two countries . He was assisted in this by his National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger . Domestic politics also entered into Nixon's thinking, as the boost from a successful courting of the PRC could help him in the 1972 American presidential election . He also worried that one of the Democrats would preempt him and go to the PRC before he had the opportunity . </P>

What issues did the united states hope to end with renewed relations with china
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