History
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.
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.
Several presidents had wanted to move closer to normalization of relations with the PRC 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 the PRC, 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.
On 15 November 2023, the National Committee on United States–China Relations and the US-China Business Council hosted a banquet with Xi Jinping for US business executives during the APEC United States 2023 meeting. [8] [9] The banquet drew questions from media about attendees and criticism from the United States House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party. [10] [11] [12]
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), has full diplomatic relations with 180 out of the other 192 United Nations member states, Cook Islands, Niue and the State of Palestine. As of 2024, China has had the most diplomatic missions of any state.
One China is a phrase describing the relationship between the People's Republic of China (PRC) based on Mainland China, and the Republic of China (ROC) based on the Taiwan Area. "One China" asserts that there is only one de jure Chinese nation despite the de facto division between the two rival governments in the aftermath of the Chinese Civil War. The term may refer, in alphabetical order, to one of the following:
The relationship between the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the United States of America (USA) has been complex and at times tense since the establishment of the PRC and the retreat of the government of the Republic of China to Taiwan in 1949. Since the normalization of relations in the 1970s, the US–China relationship has been marked by numerous perennial disputes including the political status of Taiwan, territorial disputes in the South China Sea, and more recently the treatment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang. They have significant economic ties and are significantly intertwined, yet they also have a global hegemonic great power rivalry. As of 2025, China and the United States are the world's second-largest and largest economies by nominal GDP, as well as the largest and second-largest economies by GDP (PPP) respectively. Collectively, they account for 44.2% of the global nominal GDP, and 34.7% of global PPP-adjusted GDP.
The Sino-Soviet split was the gradual worsening of relations between the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) during the Cold War. This was primarily caused by doctrinal divergences that arose from their different interpretations and practical applications of Marxism–Leninism, as influenced by their respective geopolitics during the Cold War of 1947–1991. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Sino-Soviet debates about the interpretation of orthodox Marxism became specific disputes about the Soviet Union's policies of national de-Stalinization and international peaceful coexistence with the Western Bloc, which Chinese leader Mao Zedong decried as revisionism. Against that ideological background, China took a belligerent stance towards the Western world, and publicly rejected the Soviet Union's policy of peaceful coexistence between the Western Bloc and Eastern Bloc. In addition, Beijing resented the Soviet Union's growing ties with India due to factors such as the Sino-Indian border dispute, and Moscow feared that Mao was too nonchalant about the horrors of nuclear warfare.
Ping-pong diplomacy refers to the exchange of table tennis (ping-pong) players between the United States and the People's Republic of China in the early 1970s. Considered a turning point in relations between the United States and the People's Republic of China, it began during the 1971 World Table Tennis Championships in Nagoya, Japan, as a result of an encounter between players Glenn Cowan and Zhuang Zedong. These interactions sparked diplomatic breakthrough, by signaling that both sides were willing to interact and engage in dialogue. The exchange and its promotion helped people in each country to recognize the humanity in the people of the other country, and it paved the way for President Richard Nixon's visit to Beijing in 1972 and the Shanghai Communiqué. The Shanghai Communiqué was a pivotal diplomatic document issued on February 28, 1972, during President Richard Nixon's visit to China. It marked a significant shift in U.S.-China relations, as both countries acknowledged their differences while committing to improving their relationship, ultimately setting the stage for détente between the two nations.
In international relations, public diplomacy broadly speaking, is any of the various government-sponsored efforts aimed at communicating directly with foreign publics to establish a dialogue designed to inform and influence with the aim of building support for the state's strategic objectives. These also include propaganda. As the international order has changed over the twentieth century, so has the practice of public diplomacy. Its practitioners use a variety of instruments and methods ranging from personal contact and media interviews to the internet and educational exchanges.
David M. Lampton is the George and Sadie Hyman Professor and director of China studies emeritus at the Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and former chairman of The Asia Foundation.
Cross-strait relations are the political and economic relations between China and Taiwan across the Taiwan Strait. Due to the existing controversy over the status of Taiwan and the Chinese legitimacy question, they are also not defined as diplomatic relations by either side.
Chinese–United Kingdom relations, more commonly known as British–Chinese relations, Anglo-Chinese relations and Sino-British relations, are the interstate relations between China and the United Kingdom.
On 1 October 1949 CCP chairman Mao Zedong proclaimed the People's Republic of China (PRC) from atop Tiananmen, after a near complete victory (1949) by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the Chinese Civil War. The PRC is the most recent political entity to govern mainland China, preceded by the Republic of China and thousands of years of monarchical dynasties. The paramount leaders have been Mao Zedong (1949–1976); Hua Guofeng (1976–1978); Deng Xiaoping (1978–1989); Jiang Zemin (1989–2002); Hu Jintao (2002–2012); and Xi Jinping.
Yang Jiechi is a Chinese senior diplomat and retired politician. He served as director of the Chinese Communist Party's Central Foreign Affairs Commission from 2013 and 2022, State Councilor from 2013 to 2018, Minister of Foreign Affairs of China from 2007 to 2013.
China–Japan relations or Sino-Japanese relations are the bilateral relations between China and Japan. The countries are geographically separated by the East China Sea. Japan has been strongly influenced throughout its history by China, especially by the East and Southeast through the gradual process of Sinicization with its language, architecture, culture, cuisine, religion, philosophy, and law. When Japan was forced to open trade relations with the West after the Perry Expedition in the mid-19th century, Japan plunged itself through an active process of Westernization during the Meiji Restoration in 1868 and began viewing China under the Qing dynasty as an antiquated civilization unable to defend itself against foreign forces—in part due to the First and Second Opium Wars along with the Eight-Nation Alliance's involvement in suppressing the Boxer Rebellion. Japan eventually took advantage of such weaknesses by invading China, including the First Sino-Japanese War and the Second Sino-Japanese War.
China–Ireland relations are interstate relations of China and Ireland. Ireland and China first established their bilateral foreign relations after they signed the Communique on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations on 22 June 1979. This milestone opened the gate for trades, businesses, politics, education, and tourism between the two countries; both nations have gained enormous growth of economic values. Both countries exchanged ambassadors in 1980. Ireland has an embassy in Beijing, a general consulate in Shanghai and an honorary consulate in Hong Kong; China has an embassy in Dublin. The first historical meeting for the two headers of China and Ireland governments took place in November 1996 when Premier Li Peng met with Taoiseach John Bruton at the World Food Summit. By 2019, this bilateral relationship has boomed to a high point, and a ceremony of their 40th anniversary of diplomatic relations was held in Dublin, Ireland in June 2019. More recently, the Ireland Sino Institute has been strengthening Ireland-China relations through various initiatives. During Irish Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin's visit to China in November 2023, there was a notable exchange between the Deputy Prime Minister and the Ireland Sino Institute delegation at the China Europe International Business School in Shanghai. Representatives from the Ireland Sino Institute, who had overcome blizzard conditions, discussed how their non-profit rural initiatives in Liaoning were fostering stronger ties between Ireland and China. They emphasized the role of the Ireland Sino Institute in representing both the Irish in China and Ireland in China.
Robert Anthony Scalapino was an American political scientist and East Asia specialist. He was a co-founder and inaugural chairman of the National Committee on United States–China Relations. Together with his co-author Chong-Sik Lee, he won the 1974 Woodrow Wilson Foundation Award for the best book on government, politics, or international affairs from the American Political Science Association. Scalapino's daughters include the artist Diane Sophia and poet Leslie Scalapino (1944–2010).
Sino-Latin America relations are relations between China — which is by defined as either the People's Republic of China or the Republic of China — and the countries of Latin America. Such relations have become increasingly important between the region and Latin America.
Cheng Li is a Chinese-American scholar specializing in Chinese elite politics and contemporary Chinese society; he served as the director of the John L. Thornton China Center at the Brookings Institution from 2014 to 2023, replacing Kenneth Lieberthal in the role. He is currently professor of political science and founding director of the Centre on Contemporary China and the World (CCCW) at the University of Hong Kong. Li is a prominent authority on Chinese politics, specifically leadership dynamics and the changes in leaders over generations.
Diplomatic relations between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the People's Republic of China were established on April 2, 1992. The relations between the two countries have developed smoothly and high-level exchanges have been close. The PRC embassy in Baku openly commends Azerbaijan for supporting its stance on the political status of Taiwan, Tibet's sovereignty, the conflict in Xinjiang, and the suppression of Falun Gong. All political forces have actively advocated strengthening friendly cooperation with China. China was one of the first countries to recognize independence.
The People's Republic of China emerged as a great power and one of the three big players in the tri-polar geopolitics (PRC-US-USSR) during the Cold War, after the Korean War in 1950-1953 and the Sino-Soviet split in the 1960s, with its status as a recognized nuclear weapons state in 1960s. Currently, China has one of the world's largest populations, second largest GDP (nominal) and the largest economy in the world by PPP.
The US-China Business Council (USCBC) is a 501(c)(6) nonprofit organization whose stated goal is promoting trade between the United States and the People's Republic of China (PRC). As of 2024, it comprises over 270 American companies that trade and do business with the PRC.
The foreign policy of Xi Jinping concerns the policies of the People's Republic of China's Xi Jinping with respect to other nations. Xi became the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party in 2012 and became the President of the People's Republic of China in 2013.
