When Richard Nixon claimed that his one-week stay in China in February 1972 "changed the world", no one could have predicted how great the changes would be.

The changes have been phenomenal, especially when I compared the reports filed by The New York Times and China's Beijing Review magazine 37 years ago.

It was hilarious to read about Nixon's China visit, because it was compared to "a trip to the moon". It was the first China tour by an American president in history, and it was made even more complex because China and the US did not have diplomatic relations nor did they intend to seal the ties.