The United States And China - 2217 Words

The United States and China have had a long history of diplomatic relations in the past few hundred years. Their history can go as far back to when the U.S. was a newly founded country back in the late 18th century but within the past century, these two countries have faced more difficulties on what their governments see eye-to-eye over. Prior to World War II the relationship between the United States and China was neutral, and the two countries did not face a major change until the dispute between the Nationalists and Communists in the 1940’s. Initially, the United States tried to refrain from politically interfering too much in the Chinese Civil War between the Nationalists and Communists. Although this was the case, the U.S. began to†¦show more content†¦The Communist Party won clear victories throughout the rest of the war from this point on. Before Mao Zedong drove the Nationalists away from mainland, a U.S. ambassador at the time named John Leighton met with som e of the communist leaders to discuss the United States recognizing PRC, but these negotiations failed when the Chinese communist government leaned more with Soviet Russia (Neenan). When the People’s Republic of China was founded, the United States and China went through three period; containment, rapprochement, and full diplomatic relations. The containment period started in 1949 with the rise of the PRC until sometime around 1969. This period consisted of the United States trying to destabilize and weaken the Chinese communist government as the leaders in D.C. felt that China threatened the security of their noncommunist neighbors in the region. There were multiple military alliances that the U.S. created along China’s eastern and southern borders such as Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. And even in some instances, the U.S. would aid certain groups that were trying to fight off the Chinese military, such as what the CIA did for the Tibetan resistance in the mid 1950â €™s. Washington also encouraged their allies to refrain from entering into diplomatic relations with Beijing as well as prohibiting their own citizens from visiting the country. A short period of time after this, the United States also orchestrated an international embargo