National Committee on United States–China Relations

National Committee on United States–China Relations
Formation	1966; 58 years ago
Type	501(c)3 organization
Tax ID no.	13-2566973
Purpose	To promote United States-China relations
Headquarters	6 E. 43 Street, 24th Floor, Manhattan
Membership	By invitation
President	Stephen Orlins
Vice President	Jan Berris
Website	www.ncuscr.org

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.

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. ^[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]

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]

Board of directors

Carla Anderson Hills, chairperson^[13]

Vice chairs

Treasurer

Keith W. Abell

Secretary

I. Peter Wolff

Members

Ray Dalio
Jeffrey A. Bader
Ajay Banga
Dennis C. Blair
Olivier Brandicourt
Deborah Brautigam
Milton Brice
Kurt M. Campbell
Amy Celico
John S. Chen
Daniel Cruise
Nelson G. Dong
Richard Edelman
Martin Feldstein
William E. Ford
Barbara Franklin
M. Taylor Fravel
Charles W. Freeman III
Richard Gelfond
Jimmy Hexter
Jon Huntsman Jr.
Muhtar Kent
Elizabeth Knup
David M. Lampton
Terrill E. Lautz
Cheng Li
Kenneth Lieberthal
Andrew Liveris
Gary Locke
Samuel J. Locklear
Evan S. Medeiros
Kenneth P. Miller
Howard Milstein
Douglas H. Paal
Sheldon Pang
A. Robert Pietrzak
Clark T. Randt Jr.
Anthony J. Saich
Maggie Sans
Rob Speyer
James Steinberg
Ernie L. Thrasher
Jan F. van Eck
Robert H. Xiao
John Young

Former chairs

Notes

^ MangMang (1976), p. 5-7.
^ MangMang (1976), p. 8-9.
^ Kissinger, Henry (2011). On China. London: Penguin Press. pp. 198–199, 203. ISBN 978-0143121312.
^ ^a ^b Minami, Kazushi (2024). People's Diplomacy: How Americans and Chinese Transformed US-China Relations during the Cold War. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. ISBN 9781501774157.
^ Kissinger, Henry (2011). On China. London: Penguin Press. p. 232. ISBN 978-0143121312.
^ Crean, Jeffrey (2021). "A New Sphere of Influence: Table Tennis Diplomacy and the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations". Journal of American-East Asian Relations. 28 (2): 109–132. doi:10.1163/18765610-28020003. S2CID 237860408.
^ Wheeler (2012).
^ Martina, Michael (2023-11-14). "Tricky politics on menu for China's Xi at US business dinner". Reuters. Archived from the original on 2023-11-14. Retrieved 2023-11-15.
^ Swanson, Ana (2023-11-08). "Xi Jinping to Address U.S. Business Leaders Amid Rising Skepticism of China Ties". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2023-11-13. Retrieved 2023-11-15.
^ Koch, M.J. (November 14, 2023). "The High Cost — $40,000 for a Filet Mignon — of Dining With Xi Jinping". The New York Sun. Archived from the original on November 15, 2023. Retrieved November 14, 2023.
^ 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.
^ "Activists Protest China's Xi Even Before He Arrives at APEC". Voice of America. November 13, 2023. Retrieved November 14, 2023.
^ "Board of Directors". NCUSCR. Retrieved 2023-03-19.

Illustrative publications

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).
Perkins, Dwight (2020). Perkins, Dwight (ed.). Rural Small-Scale Industry in the People's Republic of China. Berkeley, CA. doi:10.1525/9780520314719. ISBN 978-0-520-31471-9. OCLC 1229160797.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Scalapino, R. A. (1967). An annotated guide to modern China. New York: National Committee on United States–China Relations.

References and further reading

Barnett, A. D., & Reischauer, E. O. (1970). The United States and China: The next decade. New York: Praeger.
"National Committee on United States-China Relations." Berkshire Encyclopedia of China, Volume 3, Great Barrington, MA. Berkshire Publishing Group, 2009. (p. 1548-1555)
Berris, Jan Carol (1986). "The Evolution of Sino-American Relations: A view from the National Committee" (PDF). In Kallgren D. F. Simon, J. K. (ed.). Educational Exchanges: Essays on the Sino-American Experience. Berkeley: University of California Institute of East Asian Studies. pp. 80–92.
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.
Lampton, David M.; Madancy, Joyce A.; Williams, Kristen M. (1986). A Relationship Restored: Trends in U.S.-China Educational Exchanges, 1978-1984. Washington, D.C: National Academy Press. ISBN 030903678X.
Madsen, R. (1995). China and the American dream: A moral inquiry. Berkeley: University of California Press.
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.
Mang, Robert; Mang, Pamela (1976), A History of the Origins of the National Committee on United States–China Relations (PDF), Unpublished report. Prepared at the request of the Christopher Reynolds Foundation
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, ISBN 9780415506571 Chapter Two, "The National Committee on United States-China Relations."