History of Sino-American Relations
Graduate Seminar
Dr. David Lorenzo
Office: 271305
Phone: 2939-3091 ext. 51305 lorenzodav@gmail.com
lorenzo@nccu.edu.tw
Overview :
This seminar will provide an overview of the history of US relations with China,. It covers a sample of scholarship that includes both journal articles and books. The purpose of the course is to familiarize students with the continuities, discontinuities and complications of the relationship between China (in the form of the ROC on the mainland, the PRC and the ROC on Taiwan) and the U.S.
Assignments:
Students will be responsible for the following:
Classes :
Reading the assignment materials and participating in general discussions
Actively participating in discussions
Engaging in in-class writing exercises
Two seven-page discussions of articles
Submission of a preliminary literature review for their paper
A final (18 page) paper
Classes will be conducted as seminars. This means that I will lecture for only a portion of the class time. The rest of the time will be spent either as a class or in small groups in discussing the reading material that has been assigned.
Each class has a considerable number of readings assigned. I understand that most students have
English as a second language, and therefore do not expect that all students will be able to make it through all the readings every week. However, students should do a minimum of three readings every week, and for purposes of writing a paper on a topic should read all the assigned texts for that particular topic.
Materials:
Materials will be taken from a variety of sources. Those located in books will be scanned and available online at my website ( http://www3.nccu.edu.tw/~lorenzo/ ). Articles will also be posted on my website, but will also be available via JSTOR and other electronic means.

Grades:
Short papers: 25% each
Final paper: 40%
Papers
Participation: 10%
History of Sino-American Relations
Participants will submit the following:
During the classes on the 7 th and 12 th weeks :
A seven page paper analyzing and assessing an issue surrounding a weekly topic we have covered (e.g., the attitude of the US during the Taiping uprising). These papers should clearly set out the issue, generate interesting questions regarding the issue, cover ways of thinking about that issue from a variety of perspectives grounded in scholarly sources, and discuss the implications of issue area.
During the class of the 15 th
week :
A three page review of the literature on the subject of your final paper. This review shall identify relevant articles and books, discuss their relationship with the question posed by the paper, and assess the state of the scholarship at present bearing on the question posed.
Final :
On the day scheduled for the final exam submit the final paper. This paper will, building upon the literature review, data, and theoretical position you build, explore a question implicated in the study of Sino-American relations. Your paper must clearly:
Identify the question you pose
Discuss that question in light of the literature review you create
Identify the methodology and evidence you will utilize
Answer the question
Discuss the importance and relevance of your answer
Discuss the importance and relevance of your answer both generally and in light of your literature review.
Grading Scale:
A: 100-90: Excellent work—generates several interesting insights and displays a sure grasp of the material
B: 89-80: Good, above average work—sometimes generates interesting insights and displays a solid grasp of the material
C: 79-70: Average work—displays a competent grasp of the material
D: 69-60: Below average work—displays a grasp of the material that is sometimes deficient
F: 59- : Unacceptable work: displays a poor grasp of the material
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History of Sino-American Relations
1.
Introduction
E. Davis, ed., Chinese Perspectives on Sino-American Relations , 1950-2000, Edwin
Mellon, 2000, chaps. 1, 19.
P. Saunders, “Supping with a Long Spoon: Dependence and Interdependence in Sino-
American Relations,”
The China Journal , No. 43 (Jan., 2000), pp. 55-81
2.
Early Relations
Cohen, America's response to China: a history of Sino-American relations Prologue,
Chapter 1
K. Latourette, The History of Early Relations between the United States and China, 1784-
1844 (Yale U Press, 1917), chaps. III, IV and V
M. Hunt, The Making of a Special Relationship: the United States and China to 1914
(Columbia U. Press, 1983), chaps. 1 and 2
3.
Later 19 th Century Relations
Cohen, America’s Response to China , Chapter 2
Hunt, The Making of a Special Relationship , chaps. 3, 4 and 5.
M. Hunt, The Genesis of Chinese Communist Foreign Policy , chap. 2
P. Harris, “Cultural Imperialism and American Protestant Missionaries: Collaboration and Dependency in Mid-Nineteenth-Century China,” Pacific Historical Review , 60:3
(Aug 1991)
D. McKee, China Exclusion vs. The Open Door Policy , Wayne State University Press,
1977, chaps. 1-4.
4.
Early 20 th Century
Cohen, chap. 3.
Hunt, The Making of a Special Relationship , chaps. 6, 7 and 8.
Hunt, The Genesis of Chinese Communist Foreign Policy , chap. 3
Jerry Israel Progressivism and the Open Door: America and China, 1905-1921
University of Pittsburgh Press, 1971, chap.
Marilyn Young. The Rhetoric of Empire: American China Policy, 1895-1901
(Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1968), chap.
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History of Sino-American Relations
James Reed, The missionary mind and American East Asia policy, 1911-1915 / IIR
327.73051 R251
5.
Relations with the Early Republic
Cohen, chap. 4
Jerry Israel, Progressivism and the Open Door: America and China, 1905-1921 , chap.
Noel H. Pugach, “American Friendship for China and the Shantung Question at the
Washington Conference,”
The Journal of American History , Vol. 64, No. 1 (Jun., 1977)
US Relations with China , chap. 1, pts. III-V + appendixes
Hunt, The Genesis of Chinese Communist Foreign Policy , chap. 4
6.
US, China and Japan, 1930s
Cohen, chap. 5
US Relations with China , chap. 1, pts. VI-VII + appendixes
Davis, ed., chap. 2
X. Li and H. Li, eds., China and the United States: A New Cold War History . NY:
University Press of America, 1998, chap. 10.
7.
US and China during WWII
US Relations with China , chap. 1, pt. VII, chaps 3, 4 + appendixes
Li and Li, eds., chaps. 9, 12.
Hunt, The Genesis of Chinese Communist Foreign Policy , chap. 5
8.
Post War and Civil War
Cohen, chap. 6
Davis, ed., Chaps. 5-6
Hunt, The Genesis of Chinese Communist Foreign Policy , chap. 6
N.B. Tucker, ed., China Confidential: American Diplomats and Sino-American
Relations, 1945-1996 NY: Columbia University Press, 2001, Chap, 1
US Relations with China , chap. 5 + appendixes
C. Shaw, The role of the US in Chinese Civil Conflicts, 1944-1949 , chap. 4
9.
Early Relations with the ROC on Taiwan
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History of Sino-American Relations
Jeff Blackwell “
THE CHINA LOBBY”: INFLUENCES ON U.S.-CHINA FOREIGN
POLICY IN THE POST WAR PERIOD, 1949-1954”
Summary of the Foreign Relations of the United States 1958-1960, Volume XIX, China, http://dosfan.lib.uic.edu/ERC/frus/summaries/960812_FRUS_XIX_1958-60.html
Robert Accinelli, Crisis and Commitment: United States Policy toward Taiwan, 1950-1955 .
Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1996.
T. Kalicki, The Pattern of Sino-American Crises: Politico-Military Actions in the 1950s .
Cambridge U Press, 1975, chaps. 7-8
N. Tucker, Patterns in the Dust: Chinese-American Relations and the Recognition
Controversy, 1949-1950, NY: Columbia, 1983, chaps. 1, 3-4, 6-7.
10.
The PRC, the US and the Cold War
Cohen, chap. 7
Davis, ed., chap. 7
Tucker, ed., China Confidential , chap. 2, 3
Kalicki, chaps. 2-3
Li and Li, chaps. 2, 11.
Robert S. Ross and J. Changbin eds., Re-examining the Cold War: U.S.-China
Diplomacy, 1954-1973 Harvard University Press, 2001, chap.
T. Christenson, Useful adversaries: Grand strategy, domestic mobilization, and Sino-
American conflict, 1947-1958 . PUP, 1997, chap.
11.
Normalization between the US and the PRC
Cohen, chap. 8
Harding, chap. 3
Tucker, ed., China Confidential , chap. 4
J. H. Holdridge, Crossing the Divide: An Insider’s Account of the Normalization of US-
China Relations Rowman & Littlefield, 1997, chap.
Documents related to Richard Nixon’s trip to China, http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB106/index.htm
12.
Reform and Tiananmen
Cohen, chap. 9
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History of Sino-American Relations
Tucker, ed., China Confidential , chap. 7
Davis, ed., chaps. 9-10
Harding, chaps. 4-7
13.
The US, the PRC and the ROC on Taiwan:
Davis, ed., chap. 11
Tucker, ed., China Confidential , chap. 6
John P. McClaran, “U.S. Arms Sales to Taiwan: Implications for the Future of the Sino-
U.S. Relationship” Asian Survey , Vol. 40, No. 4 (Jul. - Aug., 2000), pp. 622-640
N. Tucker, Strait Talk: United States–Taiwan Relations and the Crisis with China
Harvard University Press, 2010
J. Copper, China Diplomacy , Westview, 1992, chaps. 1, 3.
Robert Sutter, “Bush Administration Policy Toward Beijing and Taipei,” Journal of
Contemporary China (2003), 12(36), August
Aaron L. Friedberg “The Future of U.S.-China Relations: Is Conflict Inevitable?”
International
Security , Vol. 30, No. 2 (Autumn, 2005), pp. 7-45
Steven M. Goldstein and Randall Schriver, “An Uncertain Relationship: The United States,
Taiwan and the Taiwan Relations Act,” The China Quarterly , No. 165, Taiwan in the 20th
Century (Mar., 2001), pp. 147-172
14.
US and China on the Age of Terrorism and a Rising China
Al Friedberg 11 September and the future of Sino-American relations - Survival, Vol.
44, no. 1, spring 2002
Davis, ed., Chaps. 18-20
Jianwei Wang and Zhimin Lin, “Chinese Perceptions in the Post-Cold War Era: Three
Images of the United States,” Asian Survey ,” Vol. 32, No. 10 (Oct., 1992), pp. 902-917
T. Carpenter,
America’s Coming War with China: A Collision Course over Taiwan
.
Palgrave, 2005, chaps. 5-6, 8.
Additional materials:
R. Arkush and R. Lee, Land without ghosts: Chinese impressions of America from the midnineteenth.
U of California Press, 1989.
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History of Sino-American Relations
P. Varg, Missionaries, Chinese and Diplomats: the American Protestant Missionary Movement in China, 1890-1952 . Princeton University Press, 1958.
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