Time:2011/11/1 

On 31 October, 2011, Ambassador Nicholas Platt, President Emeritus of the Asia Society visited the CISS, talked on Sino-U.S. relations, and discussed relevant topics with faculty members and students of Peking University.

Ambassador Platt started the event with a film screening on Sino-U.S. Relations in the mid 1970s. 

The film is made by Ambassador Platt, recorded critical episodes in the bilateral relations such as Nixon’s China trip in 1972, the establishment of the U.S. Liaison Office in Beijing in 1973, and the trips made by the U.S. diplomat around China.

In his talk, Ambassador Platt recalled his experience and witness of the Sino-U.S. Relations. After finishing Chinese language training in early 1960s, he became a political analyst of the State Department, stationed in Hong Kong, and monitored the internal development of the PRC. In early 1970s, he returned to the State Department, as an assistant specializing in China to Secretary of State William Rogers, traveled with Nixon to China in 1972. Then he worked in the U.S. Liaison Office in Beijing until early 1974. In the Carter administration, he was a staff of National Security Council and then a senior official in the Defense Department in charge of East Asia security, involved in the development of Sino-U.S. military relations. In 1992, after serving as the U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan, he became the President of the Asia Society, and with this new platform, devoted to the improvement and development of the Sino-U.S. relations.

In the discussion with the faculties and students, Ambassador Platt pointed out that the Sino-US rapprochement was based on the common interests shared by both sides. After the Cold War, although previous strategic rationale no longer existed, both sides worked together in building and cementing more and more communication at different levels, as well as exchange and cooperation in different fields. To this day, the bilateral relationship between China and the United States is still developing at a rapid pace and swiftly becoming the most important one in the world. Ambassador Platt also shared some of his personal impressions on statesmen of both nations as Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski.

In the end, Ambassador Platt presented a copy of his memoirs on the Sino-U.S. relations China Boys to the CISS. The event was chaired by Professor Yu Tiejun. Dr. Chu Guofei from the Chinese Social Sciences Today, as well as some of the students from the Youth Association of Foreign Affairs and the School of International Studies, Peking University participated in the event.