"Deng Xiaoping favoured not only the alignment with America, but also a re-evaluation in terms of economic liberalisation rather than a revolution focused on Marxist purity. The modernisation of Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore convinced Deng that capitalist modernisation worked. Formal diplomatic relations with America were established on 1 January 1979 and, later that year, Deng became the first Chinese Communist leader to pay an official visit to the USA. On this, Deng visited the NASA facilities in Houston and the Boeing headquarters in Seattle. He appreciated the significance of American technology and the need for modernisation were China to match this. One of the desired outcomes of this visit was to inaugurate what would become a massive influx of Chinese students that became an astounding transfer of human and technological skills. In 1978, moreover, a treaty of friendship with Japan helped foster stability in East Asia and marked China’s willingness to ease relations with the Western bloc. In 1979, the Americans ended the Taiwan Patrol Force, which, from 1950, had policed the waters between China and Taiwan, protecting the latter."