1905
"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
1919
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.
Photo courtesy of China Pictoral
1920
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.
Photo courtesy of Library of Congress
1924
Wai-Hing Tso (SFS'24) is the first Chinese student to graduate from Georgetown.
Photo courtesy of Georgetown University Library Archives
1926
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.
Photo courtesy of Georgetown University Library Archives
1927
Simon Tsu (Zhu Kaimin), S.J., is the first Chinese Catholic bishop to visit Georgetown.
1932
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.
1946
China’s first Catholic cardinal, Thomas Tien Ken-sin (Tian Gengxin), visits Georgetown.
Photo courtesy of Georgetown University Library Archives
1947
Ramon Kan (C'47) 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.
Photo courtesy of Georgetown University Library Archives
1951
Sir Eric Hotung (C'51), 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.
Photo courtesy of Georgetown University Library Archives
1958
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.
Photo courtesy of Georgetown University Library Archives
Anna 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
Photo courtesy of Library of Congress
1972
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.
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
Photo courtesy of Library of Congress
1973
Ch'en Chia, an English professor at Nanking University, leads the first group of Chinese linguists to visit Georgetown.
Photo courtesy of Georgetown University Library Archives
1974
Jaes 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.
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
1977
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.
Photo courtesy of Ford Library Museum
1978
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.
Photo courtesy of Georgetown University Library Archives
"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
Chinese national men's and women's basketball teams play Georgetown at the D.C. Armory. The Chinese teams win both games.
Photo courtesy of Georgetown University Library Archives
1980
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.
Photo courtesy of Library of Congress
1991
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.
Photo courtesy of Georgetown Law Center
Founded first as China Circle, Georgetown's Chinese Student Alliance (CSA) has developed into an organization that engages the larger Georgetown community 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.
1997
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.
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, U.S. Department of State
1998
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.
Official White House photo by Ralph Alswang
2005
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 University. In this photograph, he is with Georgetown alumni in Beijing.
Photo courtesy of Georgetown University Library Archives
2008
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.
Photo courtesy of Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs
Students from the Republic of China establish Georgetown’s Taiwanese American Students Association (TASA).
2009
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.
Photo courtesy of Georgetown University
2011
Georgetown establishes its Weibo page, one of the first universities in the United States to do so.
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.
Photo courtesy of Georgetown University Walsh School of Foreign Service
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.
Photo courtesy of Georgetown University Library Archives
Robert 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.
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, by Master Sgt. Jerry Morrison, U.S. Air Force
2015
Georgetown President DeGioia joins a delegation led by District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser on an economic development mission to China.
Photo courtesy of Karima Woods
Xiaofei Wang, the first Chinese student in the School of Foreign Service-Qatar, is awarded the Qatar Foundation Scholarship.
2016
Georgetown establishes the Initiative for U.S.-China Dialogue on Global Issues, a university platform for engagement among scholars, students and practitioners. 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.
Thee 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.
Photo courtesy of Office of the Vice President for Global Engagement at Georgetown University
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.
Photo courtesy of Tsinghua University
Georgetown 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 president of China's International Economic Law Society.
In 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.
Photo courtesy of Office of the Vice President for Global Engagement at Georgetown University
2017
Georgetown 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."
Photo courtesy of China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development
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.
Photo courtesy of Office of the Vice President for Global Engagement at Georgetown University
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.
Photo courtesy of Office of the Vice President for Global Engagement at Georgetown University
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.
Photo courtesy of Office of the Vice President for Global Engagement at Georgetown University
2018
Zezhou 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.
Photo courtesy of Georgetown University
"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
Georgetown and the China Institute of International Studies convene a Young Leaders Forum on U.S.-China Relations.
Photo courtesy of Georgetown University photographer Phil Humnicky
