The Sino-American parley: An eye-opener for Nigeria, By Bola Ahmed Tinubu

“We have been here a week. This was the week that changed the world.”

The above quotation were the words of President Richard Nixon in his toast at the concluding banquet on February 27 1972 during his state visit to China.

Some might have said his comment was an overstatement, but the event truly changed the course of history of the world.

That China owes her present-day prosperity and meteoric industrial growth to that visit is a fact that cannot be denied. And what made that visit so spectacular?

Before the collapse of Soviet Union the United States and China had a common strategic interest in opposing Soviet domination in Asia. And in 1960s, the Soviet’s westward and Asian-bound aggression was at its peak. Like the Soviet Union, China was also a communist country. The United States was and is still a capitalist nation. But the United States did not threaten China while the Soviet Union did. It was a classic case of a nation’s security interest overriding ideology. And parleying with the Americans can be said to be the best thing that has ever happened to China. A hundred and ninety (190) years ago, Napoleon had called China the “sleeping giant”. But because of that singular act of parleying with the most powerful country in the world, China has become an awakened giant.

But too late, the Soviets realized their mistake and tried to rectify it. While Moscow and Beijing normalized their relations in 1989, there could never be a restoration of ideology-based Sino-Soviet bloc of the 1950s.

The bottom line is that Moscow had very little to offer China while Washington had so much to offer it. The greatest Chinese need was economic progress, and in that respect the Soviets offered very poor second choice compared to the United States. To turn China away from Moscow the Americans started pouring investments, advanced technology and expertise into China. They also offered the Chinese a viable economic model.

These are what accounted for the economic miracle of China. It is galling that despite the cordial relationship between Nigeria and the United States, our leaders do not possess this indispensable diplomatic skill of manoeuvring the world’s great powers to get what we want.

If I become president, I will use diplomacy and Nigeria’s strategic supremacy in Africa to get advanced technology and expertise from world powers.