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Bringing the Chinese Back In: The Role of Quasi-Private Institutions in Britain and the United States

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China, Hong Kong, and the Long 1970s: Global Perspectives

Part of the book series: Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies Series ((CIPCSS))

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Abstract

This chapter explores the role of quasi-private institutions in the United States and Britain in reintegrating China into the international mainstream during the 1970s. It considers the degree to which these British and US organizations worked in concert with the official foreign policy bureaucracies of their own countries, comparing and contrasting the British and US situations. It seeks to illuminate the revitalization of networks of former China hands and the recruitment of new personnel to these, as part of the long-term fabric of Sino-Western relations. It focuses upon several significant think tanks, including Chatham House in Britain and the Council on Foreign Relations, the Asia Society, and the National Committee on US-China Relations in the United States. In Britain it also scrutinizes the contributions of the Great Britain China Centre, a quasi-nongovernmental organization, and in the United States, the significance of the major US philanthropic foundations in providing funding for these activities.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    John M. Lindbeck, Understanding China: An Assessment of American Scholarly Resources (New York: Praeger, 1971), 23–24.

  2. 2.

    On the establishment of the Contemporary China Institute, see File 9/77b China Studies: The Future Role of Chatham House, 1965–1968, RIIA Archives, Chatham House, London; and Files FO 371 181001, 181002, 187005, 187006, FCO 21 75, UK National Archives [hereafter TNA], Kew, Surrey.

  3. 3.

    John Gray to J. E. S. Fawcett, August 27, October 21, 1970, Fawcett to Roger Morgan, November 2, 1970, File 9/77 h China, MacFarquhar, “Report of China Study Group,” June 14, 1972, File 9/77 k China Studies, RIIA Archives; for further details, see papers and meeting reports, ibid.

  4. 4.

    For details, see File 9/97a Changing Balances in the Western Pacific 1973–1974, RIIA Archives.

  5. 5.

    “Meeting with the Chinese Chargé d’Affaires,” December 1, 1970, File 3/6/CHIa Chinese Embassy, RIIA Archives.

  6. 6.

    MacFarquhar to Shonfield, December 20, 1972, and other material in File 3/6/CHIb Chinese People’s Embassy, Chatham House Archives.

  7. 7.

    R. M. Evans to John Addis, November 20, 1972, File FCO 21 1003, TNA.

  8. 8.

    H. Llewellyn Davies, “Visit of the Chinese Foreign Minister: 6–10 June [1973],” File FCO 21 1105, TNA.

  9. 9.

    M. H. Morgan to E. V. Vines, May 16, 1972, ibid.

  10. 10.

    Humphrey Trevelyan, Worlds Apart: China 1953–5, Soviet Union 1962–5 (London: Macmillan, 1971), 312.

  11. 11.

    See esp. Proposed Great Britain/China Committee: Notes of Meeting Held on Friday 10 March 1972 at the British Council, Notes of Meeting with Chinese Chargé d’Affaires at the British Council, March 23, 1972, and press announcement of Great Britain–China Committee, FCO 21 1007, TNA; also Clyde Sanger, Malcolm MacDonald: Bringing an End to Empire (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1995), 425; and Rex Richards, “Sir Harold Warris Thompson 15 February 1908–31 December 1983,” Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 31 (November 1985), 572–610, esp. 595–596.

  12. 12.

    H. Llewellyn Davies, “Visit of the Chinese Foreign Minister: 6–10 June [1973],” File FCO 21 1105, TNA.

  13. 13.

    On the Great Britain–China Centre, see the extensive materials in Files B402-426, C108–249, and E234–240, Sir Harold Warris Thompson Papers, Royal Society, London; File 151, Sir John Addis Papers, School of Oriental and African Studies, London; the issues of the Centre’s newsletter, Britain–China; and Sanger, Malcolm MacDonald, 425–427. The following paragraphs draw on these sources.

  14. 14.

    “Lunch Given by Lord Trevelyan (16 June) and Dinner Given by Chinese Chargé d’Affaires (24 June): Talking Points,” enclosed in J. F. R. Martin, memorandum, June 15, 1976, File FCO 21 1503, TNA.

  15. 15.

    See Cradock to R. C. Samuel, March 26, 1979, enclosing “Record of a Meeting with Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping at the Great Hall of the People, Peking, on Wednesday 21 March at 10.00 A.M.,” FCO 21 1705, TNA; also “Visit to China by members of the Executive Committee of the Great Britain–China Centre,” 1979, and MacDonald’s notes, File 77/10, Malcolm MacDonald Papers, University of Durham; “Visit to China by a Delegation from the Executive Committee of the Great Britain–China Centre,” Britain–China (Spring 1979), 1–2; and MacDonald, Inside China, 200–201.

  16. 16.

    MacDonald, Inside China, 46.

  17. 17.

    Robert W. Barnett, “Trip Report October 13–November 11, 1975,” File 807 Asia Society 1975, Box 120, Series Grants, Rockefeller Brothers Fund Papers, Rockefeller Archive Center, Pocantico Hills, NY [hereafter RAC].

  18. 18.

    Tomoko Akami, Internationalizing the Pacific: The United States, Japan and the Institute of Pacific Relations in War and Peace, 1919–1945 (New York: Routledge, 2002); and John N. Thomas, The Institute of Pacific Relations: Asian Scholars and American Politics (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1974).

  19. 19.

    J. Morden Murphy, To Trustees of the American IPR, January 21, 1957, Folder 25 Institute of Pacific Relations, Correspondence M 1945-1957, Box 1, William W. Lockwood Papers, Mudd Manuscripts Library, Princeton University.

  20. 20.

    A. Doak Barnett to John King Fairbank, January 31, 1984, Folder 3, Box 53, Council on Foreign Relations Papers, Mudd Manuscripts Library, Princeton University [hereafter CFR Papers].

  21. 21.

    A. Doak Barnett, Communist China and Asia: Challenge to American Policy (New York: Harper, 1960), 1–9, quotations from 4, 471.

  22. 22.

    Council on Foreign Relations, Board of Directors, Meeting of March 9, 1967, Evaluation of Methodology of Ford Projects, Folder Council on Foreign Relations 1966–1967, Box 125, A. Doak Barnett Papers, Columbia University Library, New York.

  23. 23.

    Guangqiu Xu, Congress and the U.S.–China Relationship 1949–1979 (Akron, OH: University of Akron Press, 2007), 184–194.

  24. 24.

    Richard Nixon, “Asia After Viet Nam,” Foreign Affairs 46:1 (October 1967), 111–125.

  25. 25.

    On NCUSCR operations, see its newsletters; the National Council on US–China Relations files in Boxes 128–133, Barnett Papers; also Norton Wheeler, The Role of American NGOs in China’s Modernization: Invited Influence (New York: Routledge, 2012).

  26. 26.

    On the Asia Society’s operations, see Folders 339–396, Boxes 36–43, Asian Interests, Series 1, Sub-series 3, John D. Rockefeller III Papers, RAC; and Folders 799–831, Boxes 199–124, Rockefeller Brothers Fund Papers, RAC; also Adriana Proser, ed., A Passion for Asia: The Rockefeller Legacy (New York: Asia Society, 2009). On Rockefeller’s support for the Asia Society, see John Ensor Harr and Peter Dobkin Hall, The Rockefeller Century (New York: Scribner’s, 1988); and The Rockefeller Conscience (New York: Scribner’s, 1991); and Mary Brown Bullock, The Oil Prince’s Legacy: Rockefeller Philanthropy in China (Washington, DC, and Stanford: Woodrow Wilson Center Press and Stanford University Press, 2011).

  27. 27.

    George S. Franklin to Sam Brown, December 2, 1969, Folder 1, Records of Meetings 1969–1970 Bourassa-Brown, Box 471, CFR Papers.

  28. 28.

    Armstrong, entry, February 4, 1972, File Memoranda-Notebooks 1972, Box 104, Hamilton Fish Armstrong Papers, Mudd Manuscripts Library, Princeton University.

  29. 29.

    Bayless Manning to Zygmunt Nagorski, September 5, 1972, Folder 7 H, Box 43, CFR Papers; also in Box 477, Folder 4, Records of Meetings 1972–1973 Chayez-Froehlke, ibid.

  30. 30.

    Manning to Huang Hua, September 5, October 13, 1972, Huang Hua to Manning, September 13, 1972, Folder 7 H, Box 43, ibid.

  31. 31.

    Nagorski to Habib, November 8, 1974, Folder 1 Records of Meetings 1974–1975 Gruen-Meshikov, Box 482, CFR Papers.

  32. 32.

    William J. Barnds, ed., China and America: The Search for a New Relationship (New York: New York University Press, 1977), 1–195, quotations from 6, 226, 241.

  33. 33.

    David C. Gompert to 1980s Project Staff (and others), September 18, 1975, enclosing Gompert, “A Prospectus on the Future and Implications of the Evolution of the Chinese Economy,” September 16, 1975, Folder 13 Relations with China 1975–1979, Box 305, CFR Papers.

  34. 34.

    Allen S. Whiting and Robert F. Dernberger, China’s Future: Foreign Policy and Economic Development in the Post-Mao Era (New York: McGraw Hill, 1977).

  35. 35.

    Whiting to Ullman and Gompert, May 1, 1976, Folder 15, Box 313, CFR Papers.

  36. 36.

    Arthur H. Rosen to Russell A. Phillips, Jr., December 3, 1976, File 3777 National Committee on US–China Relations 1976–1977, Box 632, Series Grants, Rockefeller Brothers Fund Papers, RAC.

  37. 37.

    Rosen to Phillips, December 29, 1976, File 3777 National Committee on US–China Relations 1976–1977, Box 632, Series Grants, Rockefeller Brothers Fund Papers, RAC.

  38. 38.

    Rosen to Manning, March 8, 1977, Folder 4 N-P, Box 44, CFR Papers.

  39. 39.

    See “Meeting for Delegation of Institute of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China,” July 6, 1977, and attached information, Folder 8 China 1975–1979, Box 50, CFR Papers. On the delegation’s tour of the United States, see “Chinese People’s Institute of Foreign Affairs Makes First Visit to America,” U.S.–China Relations: Notes from the National Committee 7:2 (Summer 1977), 1–3; and Rosen to Phillips, January 3, 1978, File 3778 National Committee on US–China Relations 1977–1978, Box 632, Series Grants, Rockefeller Brothers Fund Papers, RAC.

  40. 40.

    Phillips to RBF Files, February 3, 1978, File 3778 National Committee on US–China Relations 1977–1978, Box 632, Series Grants, Rockefeller Brothers Fund Papers, RAC.

  41. 41.

    Richard H. Ullman to Vance, March 22, 1977, Folder 15, Box 313, CFR Papers.

  42. 42.

    See numerous files in Boxes 109 and 110, Barnett Papers.

  43. 43.

    A. Doak Barnett, “Military–Security Relations Between China and the United States,” Foreign Affairs 55:3 (April 1977), 584–597; Jerome Alan Cohen, “A China Policy for the Next Administration,” Foreign Affairs 55:1 (October 1976), 20–37; also Materials on Meeting, Jerome A. Cohen, “A New China Policy for the Next Administration,” September 14, 1976, Folder 2, Box 484, CFR Papers.

  44. 44.

    Winston Lord, oral history, 1998, Association for Diplomatic Studies Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project.

  45. 45.

    See Folder 2 Records of Meetings 1979–1980 Volcker-Zhang, Box 489, CFR Papers.

  46. 46.

    William Diebold, Memorandum to File, February 8, 1979, Folder 8 China 1975–1979, Box 50, CFR Papers; also notes by Diebold, “Beijing File,” n.d., Robert Legvold, “Memorandum to File,” May 1, 1979, Patricia Gesell to Xue Mou-xong, Wang Ceng-zhuang, May 24, 1979, Folder 7, Box 51, ibid.; duplicates of most of these documents are in Folder 13 China, Box 305, CFR Papers.

  47. 47.

    Rosen to Board of Directors, National Committee on US–China Relations, January 29, 1981, Itinerary, and Gordon Bennett to Rosen, January 4, 1981, File 3779 National Committee on US–China Relations 1978–1981, Box 632, Series Grants, Rockefeller Brothers Fund Papers, RAC.

  48. 48.

    See, e.g., Rosen to Phillips, March 9, 1979, May 23, 1980, February 18, 1981, and the NCUSCR’s Annual Reports for 1977–1978, 1979, ibid. For an overview of National Committee programs, see Wheeler, The Role of American NGOs in China’s Modernization, 30–33.

  49. 49.

    Richard H. Solomon, ed., The China Factor: Sino-American Relations & the Global Scene (New York: Prentice Hall, 1981); and materials in Folder 1, Box 570, CFR Papers; Folders 1 and 2, Box 245, CFR Papers; and Folder 5, Box 254, CFR Papers.

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  1. City University of Macau, Taipa, Macau

    Priscilla Roberts

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  1. City University of Macau, Taipa, Macao

    Priscilla Roberts

  2. Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

    Odd Arne Westad

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Roberts, P. (2017). Bringing the Chinese Back In: The Role of Quasi-Private Institutions in Britain and the United States. In: Roberts, P., Westad, O. (eds) China, Hong Kong, and the Long 1970s: Global Perspectives. Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies Series. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51250-1_13

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