The news that President Joe Biden is preparing to meet face-to-face in Asia in November with the head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Xi Jinping, broke shortly after I'd finished reading a passage in former President Ronald Reagan's memoir about Reagan's own presidential trip to Asia to meet with the Chinese Communist leader at the time.
Reagan wrote that in April 1984, he stopped in Hawaii on his way over to Asia. "I saw Barry Goldwater, who was stopping over before continuing to Washington after a visit to Taiwan. Barry was upset about my visiting China and made little attempt to hide it," Reagan wrote.
