أكثر من 2000 وثيقة تتعلق بالعلاقة بين الولايات المتحدة والصين، مع التركيز على الفترة الزمنية 1969-1998. تشمل الوثائق مذكرات، برقيات، ودراسات تتعلق بالعلاقات الدبلوماسية للولايات المتحدة مع الصين، وسجلات تتعلق بعلاقة الأمن بين الولايات المتحدة وجمهورية الصين الشعبية، ووثائق مرتبطة بالتعاون الاقتصادي والعلمي مع جمهورية الصين الشعبية، بالإضافة إلى تقديرات استخباراتية ودراسات تتعلق بأهداف السياسة الخارجية لجمهورية الصين الشعبية، وقدراتها العسكرية، ووضعها الداخلي.
The Scope and Sources of the Document Set
China and the United States: From Hostility to Engagement, 1960-1998 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.
The documents that make up this collection come from the State Department (including the embassy in Beijing and the Bureau of Intelligence and Research), Defense Department, Commerce Department, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, Central Intelligence Agency, Defense Intelligence Agency, Pacific Command, and the military services (including military service intelligence organizations).
Among the most significant items in the collection are:
- George W. Rathjens, Destruction of Chinese Nuclear Weapons Capabilities, December 14, 1964 (Top Secret), and other documents on possible U.S. reactions to China's development of atomic weapons.
- Memorandum of Conversation [Nixon-Mao Meeting], Chairman Mao's Residence, Peking, February 21, 1972 (Top Secret), and similar memos covering the 1972-1976 time period.
- National Security Council, U.S. Security Assistance to the Republic of China: NSSM 212, January 10, 1975 (Top Secret).
- National Security Decision Directive 120, Visit to the United States of Premier Zhao Ziyang, January 9, 1984 (Secret).
- U.S. Embassy, Beijing, Sitrep No. 28: Ten to Fifteen Thousand Armed Troops Stopped at City Perimeter by Human and Bus Barricades, June 3, 1989 (Confidential); U.S. Embassy, Beijing, What Happened on the Night of June 3/4?, June 22, 1989 (Confidential), and other embassy reporting during the period of the Tiananmen Square crisis.
- Portions of the Secretary of State's Morning Summaries during the Tiananmen crisis.
- State Department, Bureau of Intelligence and Research, China: Aftermath of the Crisis, July 27, 1989 (Secret).
- Office of Naval Intelligence, Worldwide Threat to U.S. Navy and Marine Forces, [deleted], Volume II: Country Study: China, December 1993 (Secret), as well as other Defense and military service intelligence studies of Chinese military capabilities.
- Secretary of Defense, U.S.-China Military Relationship, August 1994 (Secret).
- Defense Intelligence Agency, Biographic Sketch: General Chi Haotian, October 1995 (Confidential), as well as the biographic sketches of a number of Chinese military and political leaders.
- Office of Naval Intelligence, Chinese Exercise Strait 961: 8-25 March, 1996, May 1996 (Unclassified).
- The most important source of material for the set is the hundreds of documents released to the National Security Archive under the Freedom of Information Act. In addition, the set incorporates material released to the National Archives, as well as studies released by the Congressional Research Service, General Accounting Office, and RAND Corporation.
Research Value of the Set
The relationship between the United States and the People's Republic of China has been of importance to both countries since the PRC's establishment in 1949. That relationship has evolved from one of total hostility, to the initial opening to China, to normalization of relations, to the strategic embrace during the final years of the Cold War, to the complicated relationship that has developed in the post-Cold War era.
The importance of the relationship explains the tremendous volume of books, articles, and reports generated by scholars and journalists on various aspects of the U.S.-PRC relationship. One limitation faced by researchers has been a lack of primary documents. As a result, scholars have generally been forced to rely on secondary accounts of key policy documents or meetings between U.S. and Chinese officials, and fragmentary information on Chinese military capabilities that made its way into the media.
The documents included in this collection will permit scholars to refer directly to primary documents in researching U.S.China relations-including, but not limited to, policy reviews, intelligence estimates that describe various aspects of China's foreign, military, and domestic activities, as well as memoranda of conversations and diplomatic cables that provide an intimate look at key moments in the U.S.-China relationship. Thus, the documents should be of great relevance to scholars in a variety of fields, including those whose focus is:
- China studies
- U.S.-China relations
- U.S. intelligence community
- Policy formation
- International relations and trade
- Human Rights
Limitations of the Set
The limitations of the collection fall into two basic categories. First, the documents represent only a part of the overall record of U.S.-PRC relations. Only a few documents in the set were produced by the PRC. In addition, the U.S. documents represent only a small portion of the documents concerning U.S.-PRC relations that are held by various government agencies.
Impediments to attaining the documents include the difficulty in identifying many of them, the highly classified nature of many others, and the time delays associated with the Freedom of Information Act.
Second, many of the documents have been excised. The excisions vary considerably in extensiveness. Some documents involve only an occasional deletion, while others, such as one on Chinese aerospace research and development facilities, are engulfed in black.
Characteristics of the Document Set
The following tables provide information on the nature of the document set, which contains a total of 2,052 items. The charts list the number of documents by time period and by originating agency.
Time Period | Number |
1960-1969 | 100 |
1970-1979 | 376 |
1980-1989 | 784 |
1990-1999 | 792 |
Major Origin | Number of Documents |
Department of State | 736 |
U.S. Embassy/Liaison/Consulate (China) | 349 |
U.S. Pacific Command | 144 |
National Security Council | 91 |
U.S. Embassy (Poland) | 90 |
Department of Defense | 86 |
Executive Office of the President | 74 |
Defense Intelligence Agency | 67 |
Department of Commerce | 47 |
U.S. Congress | 30 |
Joint Chiefs of Staff | 29 |
Central Intelligence Agency | 25 |
Congressional Research Service | 20 |
Chinese Central Government | 19 |
Office of the U.S. Trade Representative | 17 |
Office of the White House | 13 |
U.S. Service Academies | 10 |
U.S. Army | 10 |
General Accounting Office | 9 |
Federal Aviation Administration | 8 |
National Aeronautics and | 8 |
Office of Naval Intelligence | 8 |
U.S. Air Force | 8 |
Rand Corporation | 7 |
Arms Control and Disarmament Agency | 6 |
U.S. Geological Survey | 6 |
Other | 135 |
Project Methodology
The China and the United States project staff began gathering documents pertaining to U.S. relations with the PRC that had been obtained as part of a number of Archive collection efforts. The staff also began a major FOIA campaign to obtain documents from a wide variety of agencies, both within and outside the national security community, that concerned U.S.-China relations. These included requests for specific documents identified through research, as well as requests for generic documents-such as the documents generated as a result of meetings between U.S. and Chinese officials.
While the Archive recognizes the legitimate need for certain national security information to be protected and controlled by the government, experience has shown that much of what is classified can shortly thereafter be safely declassified. In order to prevent the improper destruction and removal of documents, the Archive attempts to file FOIA requests for relevant materials as soon after the events as possible to allow processing and declassification without interfering with agency operations.
To provide a frame of reference for the set as it develops, analysts compose glossaries of individuals, organizations, laws and legal agreements, events, technologies, and acronyms. The glossary entries that are most relevant to the documents reproduced in the microfiche are included in the finding aids.
When the chronology or cross-references in cataloged documents reveal events or processes for which there is incomplete documentation, additional FOIA and MDR requests are often requested again. Then, if the denial is thought to be improper, an administrative appeal is prepared. If the appeal still results in what Archive staff and review panelists deem to be an improper response, a lawsuit may be brought to obtain the release of the missing materials. Analysts also visit governmental libraries, review court records and congressional hearings, and seek copies of documents from other sources for background information as well as to identify documentation that is relevant to the set.
As materials are collected, they are catalogued by Archive staff. Document descriptions, when reviewed in the aggregate, often reveal leads to other information that might exist and that can be sought under the Freedom of Information Act. Periodically, the staff reviews the on-line database of cataloging information to identify patterns of documentation. Scholars and journalists conducting research at the Archive reading room are asked for leads to additional materials. Review panel members, and especially present and former officials, are asked to suggest documentation known to them, with a view to ensuring comprehensiveness and balance in the resulting collection.
للاطلاع والبحث والتنزيل
