Talk:Shanghai Communiqué

Changed date from Feb 28 to Feb 27 to favor U.S. State publication
The U.S. State publication of the communiqué, as expressed on the state.gov website and the Public Papers of the Presidents entry, both state that the communiqué was issued on February 27. The source from the Taiwan Documents Project states that the communiqué was issued on February 28. It is possible that both are correct due to time zone differences (American time would be a day behind if the communiqué was released in the morning or noon of Feb. 28 in China). I am partial towards the 27 date, but Nixon was in China at the time of the release, so it would be more appropriate to put Feb. 28 as the date if it was released in the morning of 28 in China. If that did happen, then the State Department would have published it in the states as a day earlier in the afternoon of 27. More clarity is needed, I may self-revert. The Nederlands wiki and the Korean wiki put the date as 27, but all others put it as 28. Nixon left China on the 28th, so it could have been released on the morning of his departure. I'm going to check if that is the case and then get back to this. Mewnst (talk) 22:20, 29 January 2022 (UTC)


 * Changed the date back to Feb. 28, as in a speech of Richard Nixon's in Shanghai in the afternoon of 28, he mentioned that the communique was released that same day. Here is a NY Times transcription (paywalled). I don't know if it would be appropriate of me to correct the date on other pages, but I am tempted to put a footnote in the article that the date discrepancy in sources is due to a time zone difference. Mewnst (talk) 22:36, 29 January 2022 (UTC)
 * This is not resolved, the H.R. Haldeman Diaries described February 27 as the day of the issuance of the Shanghai Communiqué and as the day of Nixon's Shanghai banquet. He mentions that the communiqué was issued right before the banquet, thus setting it in the Chinese afternoon. That would make the formal issuing of the Shanghai Communiqué February 27 for both the United States and China. It doesn't help that the American delegation was nearly sleepless for the entire trip, so Haldeman's sense of time and diary entries can't necessarily be fully trusted. Something greater is needed. Mewnst (talk) 03:42, 23 February 2022 (UTC)
 * Henry Kissinger's White House Years helped clear this up. It's February 27. Nixon left China on the morning of February 28 and flew to Anchorage. The Shanghai banquet and the release of the communiqué occurred the day prior. I'm off to adjust the date on all other relevant pages. Evening of Feb. 27 in China was also Feb. 27 in the United States, so no time zone wizardry is needed. Mewnst (talk) 07:45, 23 February 2022 (UTC)

Unclear communiqué contributions from William Rogers and Ji Pengfei
The Shanghai Communiqué names William Rogers and Ji Pengfei as co-contributors in the drafting of the communiqué, but it is unclear what their additions or modifications were. The PBS source referenced elsewhere in the article goes so far as to claim that Rogers reversed a significant endorsement of the People's Republic of China as the whole of China by Kissinger and Nixon, and muted it to be its more ambiguous language towards the end of Nixon's trip. I haven't seen any backing of this claim, aside from it coming from a citation-free PBS, and have thus removed my mention of it due to the gravity of such a proposal. But PBS at least appropriately mentions that Rogers was involved in some part of the communiqué as the communiqué itself states. If anyone has a reference on this missing link in the creation of the communiqué, please bring it forward. If the PBS source is credible, and something exists to back it up, that would make for a great piece of trivia. Mewnst (talk) 23:26, 7 February 2022 (UTC)
 * Resolved, PBS source is hyperbolic but there was a real conflict with Rogers pertaining to Taiwan in the communiqué. It had to do with the lack of mention of American treaty obligations with Taiwan, not the complete abandonment of diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Now referencing a University of Southern California documentary that appears to have solid sourcing (direct interviews of a few involved people). Mewnst (talk) 00:29, 10 February 2022 (UTC)