The National Committee on United States China Relations (NCUSCR) is a nonprofit organization and advisory body founded in 1966 to encourage understanding and cooperation between the United States and China. Since 1966, the committee has conducted exchanges, educational, and policy activities in the areas of politics and security, education, governance and civil society, economic cooperation, media, and transnational issues, addressing these topics with respect to Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.
The National Committee on United States–China Relations was founded in 1966 by a coalition of academic "China watchers," civic, religious, and business leaders who were concerned with China's isolation and American apparent interest in maintaining that situation. Cecil Thomas, a Secretary of the American Friends Service Committee, was influential in recruiting and organizing them, and became the organization's first executive director. [1] The founders included figures in the China field such as Robert A. Scalapino, A. Doak Barnett, Alexander Eckstein, and Lucian Pye. Their aim was to build a network from a broad political spectrum, committed to fostering open discussion and to improving U.S. policy toward China.[citation needed]
The committee was energized by helping to organize two groundbreaking conferences: the “Institute on China Today” held at University of California, Berkeley in 1964, and the “National Conference on the United States and China” in Washington, D.C. in 1965. Together, they gave a platform to debate the reshaping of the approach towards China. There was heated disagreement among even the scholars, but figures such as Henry Luce and American businessmen argued against defenders of the policy. There was widespread interest from newspapers, television, and the general public.[2]
Several presidents had wanted to move closer to normalization of relations with China but faced resistance in Congress.[3] In 1971, the committee hosted a roundtable featuring guest speakers from countries that had begun exchanges with China in advance of official diplomatic relations.[4]:36 Members of the committee expressed the view that like these countries, Americans could develop ad hoc cooperative relations with China.[4]:36–37 The committee's mission was to educate the public, but it soon found itself in the position to offer information and advice to President Lyndon B. Johnson and other political leaders. In 1972, it co-hosted the Chinese table tennis team's tour of the United States, a widely publicized event that captured world attention. The historic two-way exchange by American and Chinese table tennis teams became known as Ping Pong Diplomacy.[5]
The Committee originally had intended to be only a "catalyst" in opening relations with China, a short-term temporary goal. But a change in this attitude came when it was called upon to manage the visit of the Chinese table-tennis team, part of American ping-pong diplomacy. Because there were no official diplomatic relations between the two countries, the State Department had to rely on private resources. The Committee stepped in, raised money, and made arrangements. This experience changed the committee's relations with American and Chinese officials, as well as its own goals.[6] In the 1980s, the Committee expanded its work to promote sustained interactions between influential Chinese and Americans in governance, media, urban planning, international relations, and economic management.[7]
↑ Kissinger, Henry (2011). On China. London: Penguin Press. pp.198–199, 203. ISBN978-0143121312.
1 2 Minami, Kazushi (2024). People's Diplomacy: How Americans and Chinese Transformed US-China Relations during the Cold War. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. ISBN9781501774157.
↑ Kissinger, Henry (2011). On China. London: Penguin Press. p.232. ISBN978-0143121312.
↑ Jacob, Gu (November 14, 2023). "Xi's Arrival in US Brings Protesters and Fans Onto Streets". Bloomberg News. Archived from the original on November 14, 2023. Retrieved November 14, 2023. The Republican wrote to the US-China Business Council and National Committee on US-China Relations demanding the organizers provide details of the guest list, funding and profits. Neither group responded to Bloomberg's request for comment on the dinner.
Michel Oksenberg, Academy of Political Science (U.S.) and National Committee on United States–China Relations. China's Developmental Experience. (New York: Academy of Political Science, Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science 31.1, 1973).
Bullock, Mary Brown (2005), "Mission Accomplished: The Influence of the CSCCRP", in Li, Cheng (ed.), Bridging Minds Across the Pacific: US-China Educational Exchanges, 1978-2003, pp.49–68
Cohen, Warren. (1986). While China faced east: Chinese-American cultural relations. In J. K. Kallgren & D. F. Simon (Eds.), Educational exchanges: Essays on the Sino-American experience (p.49). Berkeley: University of California, Institute of East Asian Studies.
Harding, H. (1992). A fragile relationship: The United States and China since 1972. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution.
Kallgren, J. K. (1986). Public interest and private interest in Sino–American exchanges: De Toqueville's "Associations" in action. In J. K. Kallgren & D. F. Simon (Eds.), Educational exchanges: Essays on the Sino-American experience (p.65). Berkeley: University of California, Institute of East Asian Studies.
Magliocco, M. T. (2008). Unsung Alchemists: The National Committee on United States–China Relations and the Path to Sino–American Rapprochement, 1949–1972. Yale College Senior Essay.
National Committee on U.S.-China Relations. U.S.-China Teachers Exchange Program. (n.d). Retrieved February 23, 2009 from http://www.ncuscr.org/programs/tep
Wheeler, Norton (2012), The Role of American NGOs in China's Modernization: Invited Influence, Asia's Transformations, New York: Routledge, ISBN9780415506571 Chapter Two, "The National Committee on United States-China Relations."
External links
Library resources about National Committee on United States–China Relations
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