For the US, China has been a distant land that may be mysterious, enchanting or threatening. While the US, unlike Europe, occupied no protectorate in China during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century China provided markets for both business people and missionaries. On the other hand, the Chinese have harbored strong suspicions about Americans, balancing admiration of some aspects of techno-modernity by concerns about social and cultural limits. Despite Chinese immigration to the US and growing American knowledge of China, suspicions as well as competitions often divide the nations.

The Second World War was a watershed in US-China relations. Fighting the Japanese as allies, the US recognized Chinese citizenship at home and, in Frank Capra’s Battle of China, touted the nation’s commitment to democracy and peace. Yet, seeds of difference were already present that became climactic in the triumph of the Chinese Communist Party in 1949. This change reverberated in the Cold War US around claims about “who lost China” and opposition to Chinese communist intervention, played out in Korea (and, later, Vietnam). American commitments to nationalist forces who had fled to Taiwan nearly led to war in 1955 and 1958, and remain a source of conflict today Moreover, American—Chinese relations have been triangulated by both states in terms of other ties and conflicts with the Soviet Union, Japan and India.

Nonetheless, an important shift in US policy came under Richard Nixon, who had baited the People’s Republic of China for much of his career. Building on sporadic ongoing diplomatic talks and “ping-pong diplomacy” he sent Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to Beijing in 1971 for secret talks, followed by Nixon’s dramatic state visit in 1972. Recognition of “the mainland,” as many Americans refer to it, had repercussions for Taiwan/the People’s Republic of China (then a totalitarian regime with strong lobbyists in Washington). Loss of its UN seat and wariness over American commitments and PRC intentions have complicated Taiwan, where America now practices a policy of “strategic ambiguity.” Sino-American contact grew in the 1970s and 1980s not only between people (journalists, scholars, tourists) and ideologies, but also between markets. Yet, in 1989, the US and China again reached point of decision when television broadcasted the brutal repression of students in Tiananmen Square, whose Goddess of Liberty recalled the American Statue of Liberty Ambivalence on the part of both the US and mainland China has marked subsequent relations. Commercial ties have driven American corporate and political campaigns for “permanent normal trade relations” and entry into the World Tade Organization. Yet, human rights activists (including many concerned by religion), labor organizers and right-wing isolationists decry this rapprochement or demand concessions the Chinese are unwilling to give. This led to bitter confrontations (including those within the Democratic Party) before Congress approved PNTR status in May 2000. Others asked why China should be given this status and Cuba embargoed. At the same time, Chinese courting of American support betrays a wariness of American morals as well as policies.

Both misunderstanding and necessity will undoubtedly continue into the twenty-first century despite increasing exchange and communication among their citizens.