Photos document 40 years of China-US relations

After traveling across the Pacific for 24 days, the Chinese ocean liner Liu Lin Hai, which set sail from Shanghai, finally reached Elliott Bay and docked at the US port of Seattle on April 18, 1979.

Following the establishment of full diplomatic relations between China and the US, the arrival of the ship marked the resumption of direct shipping between the two countries after a three-decadelong hiatus.

Some 300 people, including Chai Zemin, the first ambassador to the US from the People’s Republic of China, Peng Deqing, then-Chinese vice-minister of transport and various US officials were on the pier to welcome the ship.

The Pacific crossing was captured in black-and-white photos that are among 350 images presented in the exhibition Trans-Pacific Exchange and Cooperation at the Shanghai Municipal Archives earlier in July. The exhibit was also showcased during the Fourth US-China Sister Cities Conference and Sister Cities International’s 2019 Annual Conference in Houston on July 17.

The exhibition, which was created to commemorate the 40th anniversary of China-US relations, was divided into five chapters: official government visits; economic cooperation; cultural and art exchanges; and friendship between sister cities.

The photos depict many key China-US exchanges, such as the release of the Joint Communiqué between the PRC and the US in Shanghai’s Jinjiang Hotel in 1972, and visits by US presidents, including Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.

Many of the pictures were also about people-to-people exchanges that have taken place in Shanghai.

“Social exchange is an important foundation of bilateral relations, and Shanghai has played a significant role in those relations since the early days,” said Chen Dongxiao, president of the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies.

One photo showed the opening of the first Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Shanghai in 1989. Another photo from 1992 showed Maurice Greenberg, then chairman of AIG, holding the business license of the company’s Shanghai branch, the first foreign insurance company in the China. There was also a photo that showed the tipoff at the first NBA game played in China in 2004. Shanghaiborn Yao Ming helped the Houston Rockets beat the Sacramento Kings in that game at Shanghai Gymnasium.

The continuous opening-up of Shanghai also attracted many US investments and saw many firsts — the first Disneyland on the Chinese mainland, the first Sino-US higher education institute in China, and the country’s first Sino-US pharmaceutical joint venture — all of which were captured in photos in the show.

“The years have flown by, and we are so excited to see how our school has grown,” said Jeffrey S. Lehman, vice-chancellor of New York University’s Shanghai campus, during a visit to the exhibition. “We were created to support innovation, to build bridges between Shanghai and the rest of the world. And so far so good!”

Some of the guests also expressed hope that the ongoing trade conflict between China and the US would not overshadow the long history of good relations the two nations have enjoyed.

“I really hope the China-US relationship can get back on the right track. We already have 40 years of relations, and I hope we have another 40 more to come,” said Christie Ho, the head of communications for Asia at global steel firm Bekaert. Ho once served as a representative at the US Commercial Service in Shanghai.

Founder of US Green Solutions Michael Rosenthal, who has lived in Shanghai for more than 14 years, said: “The amazing relationship between the two countries has had tremendous economic and social benefits for the peoples of both countries. Even though there have been difficult times, there always remains a very strong relationship.”