Resources on US/UK-China Relations

Resources on US/UK-China Foreign Relations

Below is a list of resources useful for conducting research in U.S. and U.K. - China Foreign Relations.

U.S. – China Relations

Primary Sources:

Part of Digital National Security Archive, this collection pulls together more than 2,000 documents concerning the relationship between the United States and China, with an emphasis on the 1969-1998 time period. The documents include memos, cables, and studies concerning U.S. diplomatic relations with China, records concerning the U.S.-PRC security relationship, documents related to the economic and scientific association with the PRC, and intelligence estimates and studies concerning the PRC’s foreign policy objectives, military capabilities, and internal situation.

Reproduction from the originals from the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library, this collection documents the formation of the National Council for United States-China Trade, its role in the development of U.S.-China trade, and the Council’s library holdings relating to China’s trade and economy.

Reproduction of the originals from the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library, this digital collection reviews U.S.-China relations in the post-Cold War Era, and analyzes the significance of the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations, China’s human rights issues, and resumption of World Bank loans to China in July 1990.

This compilation of declassified documents concerning U.S. intelligence activities directed at both the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of China includes more than 2,300 documents.

The Foreign Relations of the United States series is the official documentary historical record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions that have been declassified and edited for publication. 

U.K. – China Foreign Relations

The six parts of this collection make available all British Foreign Office files on China, Hong Kong and Taiwan between 1919 and 1980:

1919-1929: Kuomintang, CCP and the Third International

1930-1937: The Long March, civil war in China and the Manchurian Crisis

1938-1948: Open Door, Japanese war and the seeds of communist victory

1949-1956: The Communist revolution

1957-1966: The Great Leap Forward

1967-1980: The Cultural Revolution

The complete FO 371 and FCO 21 files from the National Archives, Kew include eye-witness accounts, weekly and monthly summaries, annual reviews, reports, newspaper articles, conference reports, economic assessments and synopses on key events, leading personalities and all major new developments relating to China during the period.

The collection “China : trade, politics & culture, 1793-1980 : sources from the School of Oriental and African Studies and the British Library, London” contains a wide range of materials documenting western interaction with China from the first embassy by Lord MaCartney to trade negotiations in the 1970s. 

Secondary Sources

Columbia International Affairs Online (CIAO) publishes a wide range of scholarship from 1991 on including working papers from university research institutes, occasional papers series from NGOs, foundation-funded research projects, and proceedings from conferences.

·         PAIS International

The PAIS International database contains references to more than 460,000 journal articles, books, government documents, statistical directories, grey literature, research reports, conference reports, publications of international agencies, microfiche, Internet material, and more.

Open-Access Resources:

Newspaper Sources 

Subject Headings for searching in Morris, Orbis, QuickSearch and WorldCat:

China—Foreign Relations—United States

United States—Foreign Relations–China


Updated Date: 
Friday, June 28, 2019