A LEGACY OF DIALOGUE AND ENGAGEMENT

A LEGACY OF DIALOGUEAND ENGAGEMENT

A LEGACY OF DIALOGUEAND ENGAGEMENT

The Georgetown Initiative for U.S.-China Dialogue on Global Issues is a university-wide platform for research, teaching, and high-level dialogue among American and Chinese leaders from the public sector, business, and the academy. Created in January 2016 through a gift from the Hong Kong-based Spring Breeze Foundation, the initiative is premised on the view that despite inevitable national differences, there remains considerable room for the cultivation of shared approaches to global issues including climate change, global health, business and trade, peace and security, and economic and social development. The initiative is organized around four core principles: independence, transparency, balance, and academic excellence.

Initiative for U.S.-China Dialogue

乔治城大学美中全球议题对话项目

5G E O R G E T O W N A N D C H I N A : A L E G A C Y O F D I A L O G U E A N D E N G A G E M E N T

Georgetown University has a rich history of dialogue and engagement with China. A leading global university located in Washington, D.C.,

Georgetown has educated generations of young people for service to the nation and the world. As the United States emerged as a world power during the

late nineteenth century, Georgetown graduates reached out to China through commerce, diplomacy, and cultural exchange. Now, in the twenty-first

century, Georgetown continues to deepen its ties with China through research, teaching, and dialogue around pressing issues in U.S.-China relations and world affairs. As a Jesuit institution, Georgetown also carries forward the legacy of Matteo Ricci, S.J. (1552-1610), an early missionary whose deep

appreciation of Chinese language, philosophy, and customs forged a model for productive intercultural encounter.

6

President Grover Cleveland appoints Georgetown College alumnus Charles Denby as the U.S. minister to China. He serves as head of the U.S. legation from 1885 to 1898 and holds the record as the longest serving U.S. emissary to China. His son, Charles Denby, Jr., becomes a leading U.S. diplomat and a scholar of Chinese language and culture, and he helps to mediate the negotiations that end the First Sino-Japanese War in 1895.

Georgetown and China

in the Nineteenth

Century

Georgetown University’s involvement with China dates back to the second half of the nineteenth century when graduates began to travel to Asia and pursue diplomacy and commerce.

1885


“I suppose there is no country in the world that is more underrated than China. Nevertheless, a cursory glance at history and present conditions of that country will convince the observer that the Chinese are entitled to more consideration among Western peoples, by virtue of their civilization, than is now accorded them.” —Charles Denby, 1905

G E O R G E T O W N

8

Chinfu Wang-Shia, former general and war hero in the army of Republican China, begins teaching Chinese in the newly established School of Foreign Service. Chinfu Wang-Shia served for a time as an assistant to Dr. Sun Yat-sen, who is considered the founding father of modern China, and who is honored in the marble bust pictured above.


in the First Half of the Twentieth

Century

1919In 1919, in the wake of World War I, Georgetown founds the Walsh School of Foreign Service (SFS) in order to train a new generation of U.S. diplo-mats and international professionals. Georgetown faculty and graduates play an important role in shepherding U.S.-China relations during the interwar years.


William F. Willoughby is appointed in the SFS to teach about China and East Asia. Willoughby had previously served as an adviser to Chinese general and president Yuan Shikai (1914-1916). He also went on to serve as the first director of the Brookings Institution.

Cai Yuanpei (pictured right), president of Peking University, visits Georgetown and gives a lecture on Chinese civilization. He is the leading Chinese liberal educator of the early twentieth century and plays a major role in the development of a new spirit of nationalism and social reform in China.

1920 1920

1 0

Wai-Hing Tso (SFS’24) is the first Chinese student to graduate from Georgetown.

Richard P. Butrick (SFS’21) takes up his post at the U.S. Consulate General in Hangzhou. He later serves in Shanghai and Beijing. When the Imperial Japanese Army invades Beijing, he is detained for six months. Later he serves as director of the Foreign Service (1949-1952) and receives a Georgetown University President's Medal.

Simon Tsu (Zhu Kaimin), S.J., is the first Chinese Catholic bishop to visit Georgetown.

1924

1926

1927

1 1G E O R G E T O W N A N D C H I N A : A L E G A C Y O F D I A L O G U E A N D E N G A G E M E N T

U.S. diplomat Raymond P. Ludden (SFS’30) is assigned to China, where he would spend the next 17 years. A top China expert, he goes on to work with General Joseph Stilwell to coordinate U.S.-China military cooperation during World War II. He serves as a liaison with the Chinese Communist leadership and travels behind Japanese lines more than once to consult with them as part of the war effort. In this photograph from 1944, Ludden (center) is standing with Chairman Mao Zedong (right of center) and Premier Zhou Enlai and Marshal Zhu De (left of center) in Yan’an.

1932

China’s first Catholic cardinal, Thomas Tien Ken-sin (Tian Gengxin), visits Georgetown.

1946

1 2

Georgetown’s new School of Languages and Linguistics establishes a Chinese language major.

Sir Eric Hotung (C’51), pictured above (right), graduates from Georgetown. A successful businessman, he is renowned for his philanthropic activities in China, East Timor, Sri Lanka, and around the world; for construction of hospitals and schools; and for humanitarian and disaster relief.

Alexis Johnson (SFS’32), U.S. ambassador in Czechoslovakia, begins long-running U.S.-China talks in Geneva. These talks help to lay the groundwork for President Richard Nixon’s historic visit to China in 1972. Johnson had a long history in China, having been first appointed U.S. vice- consul in Tientsin in 1939.

Ramon Kan (C’47), pictured above (left), is the first Chinese student to graduate from Georgetown after World War II. He becomes the assistant manager of International Underwriters Insurance in Hong Kong.

1949

1951 19551947


Father Joseph Sebes, S.J., is hired to develop the graduate program in East Asian history at Georgetown. An authority on the Jesuit mission in China who had served there himself from 1938 to 1947, Fr. Sebes teaches until his retirement in 1976. His book The Jesuits and the Sino-Russian Treaty of Nerchinsk is still recognized as a classic work of scholarship.

1958Anna Chennault joins the Georgetown staff to work on Chinese dictionaries at the School of Languages and Linguistics. She was the wife of World War II hero Claire Lee Chennault, founder of the “Flying Tigers” who fought in China during the war. In this photograph from 1961, Mrs. Chennault is visiting with President John F. Kennedy.

1958

1 4


after BeijingOpens to the West

After President Nixon’s historic visit to Beijing in 1972, Georgetown is quickly drawn into the U.S. effort to rebuild relations with China.

Georgetown Professor Chi Wang (G‘69) represents the U.S. government in 1972 in negotiations to reestablish cultural ties with China, including a publication exchange between the Library of Congress and the National Library of Beijing.

1972


Rory Marie Hayden (SLL’74) serves as an interpreter for the Chinese table tennis team (above, meeting President Nixon) during their first visit to the United States.

Ch’en Chia, an English professor at Nanking University, leads the first group of Chinese linguists to visit Georgetown. In these photographs, he is received by Georgetown University President Fr. Robert J. Henle, S.J. (right), and accompanied by Rory Marie Hayden (left).

1972 1973

1 6

James Soong Chu-yu (G’74) receives his doctorate in international relations from Georgetown. He is the founder of the People First Party and has run for president of the Republic of China several times.

Former secretary of state Henry A. Kissinger accepts an appointment as a professor in Georgetown's Walsh School of Foreign Service, where he engages students with stories of his historic negotiations with Chairman Mao.

19741977


Fifty-two distinguished Chinese scholars arrive in Washington, D.C., in the wake of the U.S. decision to normalize relations with Beijing. In this photograph, they are greeted by Georgetown President Timothy S. Healy, S.J. The group studies English at Georgetown and American University before spending time at other U.S. institutions of higher education.

1978

“Chinese people are great people, and American people are also great people. We came all the way to the United States, not only to learn advanced science and technology, but also to promote the friendship between the Chinese and American peoples.”

—Professor Liu Baicheng of Tsinghua University, a member of the delegation to Georgetown, 1978

1 8

Chinese national men’s and women’s basketball teams play Georgetown at the D.C. Armory. The Chinese teams win both games.

Ambassador and former Peace Corps director Sargent Shriver leads an 18-member delegation from Georgetown’s Kennedy Institute of Ethics to the first U.S. academic meeting with China’s National Academy of Social Sciences.

19781979


Georgetown establishes the Dr. Sun Yat-sen Chair in Chinese Studies with the support of Taiwan’s National Chengchi University. Derek Bodde (left) becomes the first holder of the chair. He began his academic career as a Sinologist and was the first Fulbright scholar in 1948, during which time he studied in Beijing and wrote an eyewitness account of the Communist revolution.

1980Robert Pitofsky, dean of the Georgetown Law Center, visits China with other law school deans to discuss opportunities for cooperation and exchange. The group visits universities in Beijing, Nanjing, Shanghai, and Xi’an. At the time, only five students from China attend Georgetown Law Center. Today, more than 150 Chinese students are enrolled each year.

1986

2 0

Georgetown Law Center begins an initiative to increase its focus on China and East Asia. In 1993, the Asian Law and Policy Studies Program is created to focus the academic strengths of the Georgetown law and foreign policy faculty on legal issues arising out of Asia’s growing economic power and to equip Georgetown’s graduates to practice competently and ethically in a global context shared with the nations of East Asia. Today, Georgetown Law Center regularly offers about a half dozen courses related to the Chinese legal system.

1991

Founded first as China Circle, Georgetown’s Chinese Student Alliance (CSA) has developed into an organization that engages the larger Georgetown com-munity through such events as the Moon Cake Festival celebration. Georgetown also has the Chinese Student and Scholar Association (CSSA), which specifically serves the needs of undergraduate and graduate students from China and promotes cultural exchange among the Georgetown community.

1991


Wang Yi, China’s foreign minister (appointed in 2013), becomes a visiting scholar in the Walsh School of Foreign Service. In this photograph, Wang Yi welcomes U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in Beijing in 2017.

1997Ambassador Su Ge, president of the China Institute of International Studies (assumed in June 2015), a think tank associated with the Chinese Foreign Ministry, comes to Georgetown as a visiting Fulbright Fellowship Senior Scholar.

2000

President William J. Clinton (SFS‘68; pictured here meeting students in Xiahe Village, Xi’an, China) makes his first visit to China. As president, he advocates for stronger U.S.-China ties and supports China’s entry into the World Trade Organization.

1998

2 2


at the Opening of the Twenty-

first Century

Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, Georgetown has expanded its ties to China along multiple dimensions. Activities range from study abroad opportunities for undergraduates, to joint research programs for faculty, to executive leadership programs for Chinese civil servants.

Georgetown Law Center inaugurates the Eric E. Hotung International Law Building with a generous donation from Hong Kong philanthropist Sir Eric Hotung (C’51). The building includes a library as well as state-of-the-art classrooms and lecture halls, and a moot court room modeled on the U.S. Supreme Court.

2004


Georgetown President John J. DeGioia makes his first visit to China. He signs a 10-year memorandum of understanding on academic exchange and cooperation with Tsinghua Uni-versity. In this photograph, he is with George-town alumni in Beijing.

2005President DeGioia visits Peking and Renmin Universities in Beijing and Guangxi University in Nanning. He signs an agreement with the China Scholarship Council to jointly sponsor young scholars from Chinese institutions as post-doctoral fellows.

2006

2 4

In May, Georgetown and China’s Central Party School agree to a long-term program of academic exchange with semi-annual conferences.

Georgetown opens a liaison office on the campus of Fudan University in Shanghai to facilitate faculty and student exchange with Chinese institutions.

Georgetown’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs establishes a dialogue with China’s State Administration for Religious Affairs. The Berkley Center also hosts young scholars of religion in China as postdoctoral fellows.

2006

2007 2008


Students from the Republic of China establish Georgetown’s Taiwanese American Students Association (TASA).

Georgetown President John J. DeGioia meets with China’s top education official, State Councilor Liu Yandong, first in Beijing and again in Washington, D.C. In this photograph are some of the 50 Georgetown students State Councilor Liu Yandong invites in 2009 for a two-week cultural immersion trip to China.

2008 2009

2 6


Today

Georgetown’s ties to China are growing at a rapid pace as China has become the world’s second largest economy and is playing an ever-increasing role in international affairs. Georgetown’s faculty is rapidly expanding its collaborative research with top Chinese universities on pressing global issues. More than 700 Chinese students attend Georgetown, and there are active alumni associations in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Taipei.


Georgetown establishes its Weibo page, one of the first universities in the United States to do so.

The Georgetown men’s basketball team meets with Vice President Joseph Biden and Georgetown President DeGioia in Shanghai during travel to China to play exhibition games.

Georgetown University announces the establishment of the master of arts degree in Asian studies. Housed at the U.S. Department of Education-funded National Resource Center for East Asia, the new M.A. degree combines functional training and regional expertise.

2011

20112011

2 8

Georgetown President DeGioia joins Mayor Vincent Gray on an economic development mission to China for the District of Columbia.

Former Hong Kong chief executive C.H. Tung establishes the Tung Foundation Scholarship Program to support senior Chinese Foreign Ministry officials studying at Georgetown.

2012

2014Robert Gates (G’74) is the first U.S. secretary of defense to meet with then-vice president Xi Jinping (above). Secretary Gates wrote his doctoral thesis at Georgetown on Soviet Sinology.

2011


Georgetown President DeGioia joins a delegation led by District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser on an economic development mission to China.

Georgetown announces a $10 million donation from the Hong Kong-based Spring Breeze Foundation to establish the Georgetown Initiative for U.S.-China Dialogue on Global Issues. The initiative aims to advance shared approaches between the United States and China on critical global issues, including climate change, global health, business and trade, peace and security, and economic and social development.

2015 2016

Xiaofei Wang, the first Chinese student in the School of Foreign Service-Qatar, is awarded the Qatar Foundation Scholarship.

2015

3 0

The U.S.-China Initiative launches its first two research groups on climate change and global health. The groups, made up of leading U.S. and Chinese scholars, meet over several semesters in both countries and produce joint research and background reports for a wider public. The initiative has since launched groups on business and trade and peace and security.

2016Georgetown President John J. DeGioia confers an honorary degree on Zhang Yuejiao (L’83), member of the WTO Appellate Body (2008-2016), professor of law at Shantou University in China, arbitrator on China’s International Trade and Economic Arbitration Commission, and vice presi-dent of China’s International Economic Law Society.

2016

In November, President John J. DeGioia leads a high-level Georgetown delegation to East Asia. In Beijing, President DeGioia signs memoranda of understanding with Tsinghua University—one of China’s leading universities—and the National Development and Reform Commission, key driver of China’s long-term economic planning.

2016In September, Georgetown announces the selection of nine U.S. and Chinese university students as the first student fellows of the U.S.-China Initiative. Through in-person meetings, online forums, and networking activities, the program provides a platform for dialogue among future leaders from both countries.

2016

G E O R G E T O W N A N D C H I N A : A L E G A C Y O F D I A L O G U E A N D E N G A G E M E N T 3 1

3 2

In September, the second cohort of the U.S.-China Student Fellows gathers in Washington, D.C., for a five-day meeting. Activities include a simulation on the North Korea nuclear crisis, policy briefings with government officials and scholars, and exchanges with Georgetown faculty and students.

2017Georgetown President John J. DeGioia joins the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development and participates in the annual meeting in Beijing on “Ecological Civilization in Action: A Common Green Future for the New Era.”

2017


Georgetown students across a range of graduate programs participate in a study tour sponsored by the China-United States Exchange Foundation. The thematic focus is China’s emerging digital economy.

In November, the U.S.-China Research Group on Climate Change holds its third and final meeting at Georgetown, with a public event featuring presentations from the group members and a policy briefing at the Department of the State. Previous meetings took place in Washington, D.C., and Beijing in 2016.

2017

2017

3 4

Georgetown and the China Institute of International Studies convene a Young Leaders Forum on U.S.-China Relations.

2018Zezhou Cai (G’18) is selected as a Schwarzman Scholar. Cai is the third Georgetown student to enter this prestigious program that sends students from around the world to pursue a master’s degree at Tsinghua University in Beijing. José Miguel Luna (SFS’15) and Zachary Kay (SFS’16) were among the first Schwarzman cohorts.

2018

“Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service was established almost a century ago at a time when the leading powers were rethinking the global order. The United States and China have a critical role to play in reshaping that order today.”

—Joel Hellman, Dean, Walsh School of Foreign Service

Image Sources

Page 8: China PictoralPage 9: Library of CongressPage 10: Left and Center, Georgetown University Library Archives; Right, public domainPage 11: Left, public domain; Right, Georgetown University Library ArchivesPage 12: All images from the Georgetown University Library ArchivesPage 13: Left, Georgetown University Library Archives; Right, Library of CongressPage 15: Left, Library of Congress; Center and Right, Georgetown University Library ArchivesPage 16: Left, Wikimedia Commons; Center, Georgetown University Library Archives; Right, Ford Library MuseumPage 17: Georgetown University Library ArchivesPage 18: Georgetown University Library ArchivesPage 19: Library of CongressPage 20: Georgetown Law CenterPage 21: Left, Wikimedia Commons, U.S. Department of State; Right, Official White House photo by Ralph AlswangPage 23: Georgetown University Library ArchivesPage 24: Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown UniversityPage 25: Georgetown UniversityPage 27: Left, Georgetown University Library Archives; Right, Georgetown University Walsh School of Foreign ServicePage 28: Wikimedia Commons, by Master Sgt. Jerry Morrison, U.S. Air ForcePage 29: Karima WoodsPage 30: Office of the Vice President for Global Engagement at Georgetown UniversityPage 31: Left, Office of the Vice President for Global Engagement at Georgetown University; Right, Tsinghua UniversityPage 32: Left, China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development; Right, Office of the

Vice President for Global Engagement at Georgetown UniversityPage 33: Left and Right, Office of the Vice President for Global Engagement at Georgetown UniversityPage 34: Left, Georgetown University; Right, Georgetown University photographer Phil Humnicky

Initiative for U.S.-China Dialogue

乔治城大学美中全球议题对话项目

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A LEGACY OF DIALOGUE AND ENGAGEMENT