Richard Nixon arrived in Beijing on February 21, 1972. That afternoon, Zhou Enlai came to the Diaoyutai guesthouse, where Nixon and Henry Kissinger were staying. He said directly that Chairman Mao wanted to see the president. The president, he said, needed to go at once.
Nixon and Kissinger left quickly, without telling Secretary of State William Rogers. The meeting in Mao’s study at Zhongnanhai began at 2:40 p.m. and ran longer than planned.