An "exceedingly delicate undertaking": Sino-American science diplomacy, 1966–78 LSE Research Online URL for this paper: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/102296/ Version: Accepted Version Article: Millwood, Peter (2019) An "exceedingly delicate undertaking": Sino-American science diplomacy, 1966–78. Journal of Contemporary History. ISSN 0022-0094 (In Press) Reuse Items deposited in LSE Research Online are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved unless indicated otherwise. They may be downloaded and/or printed for private study, or other acts as permitted by national copyright laws. The publisher or other rights holders may allow further reproduction and re-use of the full text version. This is indicated by the licence information on the LSE Research Online record for the item.
[email protected] https://eprints.lse.ac.uk/ An “Exceedingly Delicate Undertaking”: Sino-American Science Diplomacy, 1966–78 Pete Millwood International History Department, London School of Economics In the first half of the twentieth century, China sought to modernize through opening to the world. Decades of what would become a century of humiliation had disabused the country of its previous self-perceived technological superiority, as famously expressed by Emperor Qianlong to the British envoy George Macartney in 1793. The Chinese had instead become convinced that they needed knowledge from outside to become strong enough to resist imperial aggression. No country encouraged this opening more than the United States. Americans threw money and expertise at the training of Chinese students and intellectuals. The Rockefeller Foundation’s first major overseas project was the creation of China’s finest medical college and other US institutions followed Rockefeller’s lead by establishing dozens of Chinese universities and technical schools to train a new generation of Chinese scientists.