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Nixon in China

Nixon in China phrase: suggesting the ability of a politician with an unassailable reputation among his or her supporters for representing and defending their values to take actions that would draw their criticism and even opposition if taken by someone without those credentials.

Phrase

Nixon in China

  1. (idiomatic) Suggesting the ability of a politician with an unassailable reputation among his or her supporters for representing and defending their values to take actions that would draw their criticism and even opposition if taken by someone without those credentials.
    • “People have tried to duplicate Nixon in China over and over again, including Iran,” Mann said. He cites the ill-fated 1986 journey by President Ronald Reagan’s national security adviser Robert “Bud” McFarlane, who traveled to Tehran carrying a Bible with a handwritten verse from Reagan and a...2015 March 14, Steven Mufson, “Is Obama’s Iran overture like Nixon’s opening to China?”, in The Washington Post, archived from the original on 20 Aug 2015

Origin of Nixon in China

A reference to U.S. President Richard Nixon's 1972 establishment of direct diplomatic relations with, and personal visit to, the People's Republic of China. Nixon's unyielding opposition to Communism had been well-known.

Questions about Nixon in China

What does Nixon in China mean?
Nixon in China means suggesting the ability of a politician with an unassailable reputation among his or her supporters for representing and defending their values to take actions that would draw their criticism and even opposition if taken by someone without those credentials.
What part of speech is Nixon in China?
Nixon in China is a phrase.

Words near Nixon in China in the dictionary

  1. Nixie tubes
  2. nixies
  3. nixing
  4. Nixon
  5. Nixon goes to China
  6. Nixon in China
  7. Nixon shock
  8. Nixon to China
  9. Nixonesque
  10. Nixonette
  11. Nixonettes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Nixon in China (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-Nixon in China.ogg.

Cite this entry: “Nixon in China.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/nixon_in_china. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.