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Richard Nixon spent 21 to 28 February 1972 in Beijing, Hangzhou and Shanghai, meeting Mao Zedong on the day he arrived. No sitting US president had set foot in the People's Republic, and the two governments had had no diplomatic relations for 23 years.

At the end of Nixon's visit the two governments published a joint statement setting out, separately, what each believed about Taiwan. Washington said it 'acknowledges that all Chinese on either side of the Taiwan Strait maintain that there is but one China' — the sentence US policy has rested on ever since.

From 1 January 1979 Washington recognised the People's Republic as the sole legal government of China and withdrew recognition from Taipei, ending thirty years in which the United States had treated the Republic of China on Taiwan as the government of all China.

Four weeks after relations began, Deng Xiaoping stood on the South Lawn for a full arrival ceremony — the first visit to Washington by a leader of Communist China. He went on to charm Congress and the press, and to be photographed in a ten-gallon hat at a Texas rodeo.

Three months after breaking relations with Taipei, Congress wrote the substitute into law: an unofficial relationship run through the American Institute in Taiwan, arms 'of a defensive character', and a declared US capacity to resist any resort to force against Taiwan. It has governed the question ever since.

Public Law 106-286 ended the annual congressional fight over China's trade status and cleared the last American obstacle to its entry into the WTO. It is the single act that opened the United States market to Chinese manufacturing on permanent terms.

China became the WTO's 143rd member on 11 December 2001, fifteen years after applying. Its export share of world trade roughly quadrupled over the next two decades, and the bargain struck in Doha is still what the tariff argument is about.

US Customs began collecting an extra 25 percent on 818 tariff lines worth about $34 billion of Chinese imports on 6 July 2018 — the opening move of the trade war, and the first time since the 1930s that the United States taxed a major trading partner at this scale.

After eighteen months of escalating tariffs the two sides signed an 'historic and enforceable agreement' in the East Room on 15 January 2020 — purchase commitments, intellectual-property rules and a ban on forced technology transfer. Most of the tariffs stayed in place.

The first Speaker of the House to visit Taiwan in 25 years touched down in Taipei on the night of 2 August 2022. Within hours the PLA's Eastern Theater Command began live-fire exercises around the island, opening the Fourth Taiwan Strait Crisis.

The Commerce rule that took effect on 7 October 2022 put advanced computing chips, the tools to make them and the Americans who service them behind a licence. It is the sharpest single break in the technology relationship since 1979.

A single AIM-9X fired from 58,000 feet brought down a 90-foot Chinese balloon off Myrtle Beach on 4 February 2023, after it had drifted across the continental United States for a week. It was the F-22's first air-to-air kill, and it cost Antony Blinken his trip to Beijing.

Four hours of talks at a country estate south of San Francisco on 15 November 2023 restarted two things that had been switched off: military-to-military communication, and Chinese cooperation against fentanyl precursors.

President Trump, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen signed a pact at UN Headquarters letting the US add defense areas at Narsarsuaq and Mestersvig and expand Pituffik Space Base. It bars non-NATO states from military installations in Greenland and has no end date.

Moroccans vote from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Wednesday 23 September 2026 for all 395 seats in the House of Representatives, with results due the next day. It is the first national vote since the deadly youth-led Gen Z protests.

Trump will meet Xi Jinping and Peng Liyuan on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews at about 4pm on 23 September 2026, a reception US presidents almost never give a visiting head of state. It opens Xi's 23-25 September state visit, his first to Washington since 2015.

479 military personnel from every branch, an Armed Forces Full Honor Cordon, a Rose Garden military review and a flyover by a B-2 and four F-22s: the formal welcome for Xi Jinping on the morning of 24 September 2026, his first White House arrival ceremony since 2015.

British Columbians vote on Saturday 24 October 2026 for all 93 seats in the legislature, with polls open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Pacific. Premier David Eby called the snap election two years early, citing the Trump trade war.

Nigerians elect a president, vice president, senators and members of the House of Representatives on 16 January 2027, with governorship and state assembly votes following on 6 February.

Kyrgyzstan holds a presidential election on 27 January 2027, brought forward after parliament reset the date. Incumbent Sadyr Japarov has said he will seek a second term.

Salvadorans elect a president and the Legislative Assembly on 28 February 2027, the first national vote since the country scrapped presidential term limits in 2025.

The Federated States of Micronesia holds general elections on 2 March 2027 for its 14-member Congress, including the four state senators elected every four years.

Gambians elect the 53 constituency seats of the National Assembly on 10 April 2027, a date announced by the Independent Electoral Commission.

Finns elect the 200 members of the Eduskunta on 18 April 2027, the first parliamentary election since Finland joined NATO in 2023.

Every Spanish municipality votes on 23 May 2027, alongside regional elections in twelve autonomous communities on the same day.

Mexicans elect all 500 members of the Chamber of Deputies on 6 June 2027, the midterm test of Claudia Sheinbaum's supermajority, held alongside state elections.

Mongolia holds its ninth presidential election since democratisation in the first half of June 2027. Incumbent Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh cannot stand again.

Guatemalans elect a president, all 160 seats in Congress and 340 municipal governments in June 2027, with a presidential runoff in August if nobody wins outright.

Kenyans elect a president and the members of the National Assembly and Senate on 10 August 2027. Incumbent William Ruto is seeking a second term.

Angola holds general elections by August 2027 for the 220-seat National Assembly, whose winning party's list leader becomes president.

Argentines choose a president and renew Congress on 24 October 2027, the first presidential election since Javier Milei's 2023 win.