On February 22nd, 2022, The Center for American Studies(CAS) at Fudan University, The Shanghai Institute of American Studies (SIAS) and Shanghai Association of American Studies (SAAS) convened "Mutual Respect, Peaceful Coexistence and Win-Win Cooperation: Commemorations for the 50th Anniversary of the Shanghai Communiqué" at the Jin Jiang Grand Hall, the birthplace of Sino-U.S. relations, where then-U.S. President Richard Nixon signed the Shanghai Communiqué, also known as the Joint Communiqué of the United States of America and the People's Republic of China with Premier Zhou Enlai. The issuance of the Shanghai Communiqué signaled the new chapter and set the stage for the normalization of relations between China and the United States.
In the Plenary Welcome Session, Professor Wu Xinbo (Director of the Center for American Studies and Dean of the Institute of International Studies at Fudan University; President, Shanghai Institute of American Studies and Chair, Shanghai Association of American Studies) delivered the opening remarks. Professor Wu noted that the Shanghai Communiqué (1972), was a diplomatic document issued by the United States of America and the People's Republic of China. The document pledged that it was in the interest of all nations for the United States and China to work towards the normalization of diplomatic relations, affirmed a mutual interest in détente, and laid the groundwork for normalizing China-U.S. relations. The two sides had hammered out the Shanghai Communiqué, a document that has been a cornerstone of Sino-U.S. relations ever since. As bilateral ties have faced headwinds, initiatives to convene the specifically meaningful events at the juncture consist in the reality-oriented significance to foster the development of China-U.S. relationship by reviewing the history of bilateral relations, reflecting on the challenges at present and looking ahead into the orientations of the future. At the opening ceremony, Shanghai CPPCC Vice Chair Zhou Hanmin and Party Secretary Wang Weisong from Shanghai Federation of Social Science Associations (SFSSA) addressed the session. To conclude, Sha Hailin (President of Shanghai Public Relations Association) presented closing remarks. Xu Bu (President of China Institute of International Studies) and Yang Jiemian (President of Shanghai Institutes for International Studies) delivered the keynote address.
Traversing the thematic panels, Wang Zhan (Chair, Shanghai Federation of Social Science Associations),Wu Xinbo (Director of the Center for American Studies and Dean of the Institute of International Studies at Fudan University; President, Shanghai Institute of American Studies and Chair, Shanghai Association of American Studies), Yao Yunzhu (Senior Advisor, China Association of Military Sciences; Director Emeritus, Center on China-American Defense Relations, Academy of Military Sciences), Yan Anlin (Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Taiwan, Hongkong and Macao Studies, Shanghai Institutes for International Studies), Da Wei (Director, Center for International Security and Strategy CISS, Tsinghua University), Song Guoyou (Deputy Director, Center for American Studies, Fudan University), Chen Dingding (Professor of International Relations at Jinan University, Guangzhou, China and Non-Resident Fellow at the Global Public Policy Institute) present at the commemorative symposium conveyed profoundly in-depth reflections on the historical background and enormous significance of the Shanghai Communiqué, expounded perspectives with regard to managing bilateral relations, insights into current China-U.S. security relations, the Taiwan issue, global landscape, business partnership, implications and scenarios for Sino-American relations.Subsequently, Xin Qiang (Deputy Director, Center for American Studies, Fudan University) and Shao Yuqun (Director of Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau Studies, Shanghai Institutes of International Studies) commented on the distinguished panelists’ remarks in the ensuing sequel sessions.
The year 2022 marks the 50th anniversary of former U.S. President Richard Nixon's pivotal trip to China. Nixon's historic week-long visit to China in February 1972 "has changed the world" and the Shanghai Communiqué--the joint statement published at Jin Jiang Hotel on February 28, 1972, has remained the basis of Sino-American bilateral relations. In this sense, the thawing breakthrough made in the Sino-U.S. relationship would undoubtedly go down in the annals of history and marked a hinge point in modern history, laying the groundwork for normalizing China-U.S. relations and the establishment of diplomatic relations, opening up new prospects for the relations between the two countries with further improvement and growth of bilateral relationship thereafter.
(Source: Center for American Studies, Institute of International Studies, Fudan University. Preceding News by Mao Xiaojun)
