1. RICHARD NIXON is the US president who traveled to China to begin a new era of better relations between the two countries. Nixon had great controversies during his presidency -- the unwinnable situation of the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal. But he had some strong accomplishments as well, and the opening of relations with China was a key change of direction in foreign policy.
2. THE PRESENCE OF WESTERNERS triggered China's Boxer 1899-1901 Boxer Rebellion. The Society of the Righteous and Harmonious Fists (who became known as the Boxers) were rebelling against Western and Japanese influence in China.
3. Mao Zedong's intent with the Cultural Revolution was to ERADICATE INTELLECTUALS, BUREAUCRATS, AND WESTERN INFLUENCES. Mao's view was that Chinese communist leaders at that time were going in the wrong direction, and so he called on the nation's youth to purge Chinese society of impure elements and reinvigorate the spirit of revolution that had existed in China twenty years earlier.
