America and China: Exclusion, Cold War, and Rapprochement
The American relationship with China has run from the docks to the summit. In the nineteenth century the United States welcomed Chinese labor and then slammed the door shut on it; in the twentieth it fought two wars shaped by Chinese power and then, in a single startling week, reopened relations with a handshake in Beijing. Few relationships have swung so far between exclusion and engagement.
This guide follows that arc: the era of trade and exclusion, the two Cold War conflicts that ran through China, and the rapprochement that reshaped the balance of power. Each entry links to a full account.
The relationship began with people and goods. Chinese laborers helped build the American West, and American merchants eyed the vast China trade — but welcome curdled into exclusion as the United States barred Chinese immigrants even while demanding open access to Chinese markets. These two entries capture that contradiction: a door shut to Chinese people and pushed open for American commerce.
When China became communist in 1949, it moved from trading partner to Cold War adversary, and American soldiers soon found themselves fighting in its shadow. In Korea they faced Chinese armies directly; in Vietnam they fought an enemy China armed and backed. For two decades, war in Asia and the fact of Chinese power were inseparable.
Then, suddenly, the door reopened. In 1972 an American president who had built his career on anti-communism flew to Beijing and shook hands with Mao — a reversal that realigned the Cold War overnight and pulled China back into the world the United States led. It remains one of the most consequential diplomatic turns of the century.
China's opening was a move in the larger contest traced in America and Russia, and the wars here run through every U.S. war and major conflict.