Few Americans have met personally with the leadership of both Mao Zedong’s China and Chiang Kai-shek’s Taiwan. Sheila Platt, and…
The Impact of China’s Tiananmen Square Massacre in Taiwan and on the Mainland
Hong Kong-born U.S. Foreign Service Officer Edward Loo migrated to the United States as an infant, and went on to…
Richard Solomon, Ping-Pong Diplomat to China
China scholar Richard Solomon, who was an essential component of the “ping-pong diplomacy” that led to the thaw in relations…
Rooted in the Good Earth: White, Protestant “China Brats” in the Foreign Service
A confluence of two rising movements in the early 1800s, Western outreach to China and reinvigorated Christian evangelism, led to…
Get While the Getting’s Good: Departing Communist China
The decision to close an embassy and order departure of diplomatic personnel is a signal of last resort that bilateral…
China’s Fight for Tiny Islands — The Taiwan Straits Crises, 1954-58
Recent disagreements over Beijing’s claim to the South China Seas (in which a tribunal constituted under the UN Convention on the…
Bad Blood: The Sino-Soviet Split and the U.S. Normalization with China
In the 1960s, in the depths of the Cold War, the world was viewed in terms of a zero-sum game:…
Hong Kong Returns to China, Part II
As the formal handover of Hong Kong to China approached, many grew concerned about Beijing’s intentions. Tens of thousands of…
Hong Kong Returns to China, Part I
In September 1982, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher went to Beijing to begin a dialogue on the issue of Hong…
Tiananmen: Another Bump in China’s Road to WTO Accession
Deng Xiaoping’s 1978 Open Door policy unleashed China’s economy beyond its borders through political reforms and regional trade agreements. This…