NATION : Nixon’s Fact-Finding Visit to China Reset for Late October

Former President Richard M. Nixon is going to China to meet with government leaders late this month on a visit delayed because of the deadly crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators last spring.

Nixon’s spokesman, John H. Taylor, said the former President’s meetings with officials in Beijing will begin around Oct. 30. For security reasons, Taylor said, his precise travel plans were not disclosed.

Taylor said Nixon had discussed his plans with President Bush and with Brent Scowcroft, the President’s national security adviser. “He will give his assessment of the leaders, their policies and Chinese-American relations in general in writing to President Bush upon his return,” the aide said.

The trip will be Nixon’s sixth to China since, before resigning the presidency in disgrace, he reopened U.S. relations with mainland China in 1972. Taylor described it as “solely a fact-finding trip” with no sightseeing or social events. He said Nixon will be paying his own expenses and those of the one security aide who will travel with him.