During this time period, the People's Republic of China did not get along with the capitalist countries of the Western world. Beginning in the 1960s, relationships between the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union also became increasingly unfriendly in the Sino-Soviet Split. In 1972, to counter the power of the Soviet Union, Chairman Mao and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai met with US President Richard Nixon in Beijing. This began to improve relationships between China and the Western world.