| Embassy of the People's Republic of China in the United States 中国驻美国大使馆 | |
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| Location | Washington, D.C. |
| Address | 3505 International Place,N.W. |
| Coordinates | 38°56′33″N77°3′59″W / 38.94250°N 77.06639°W /38.94250; -77.06639 |
| Ambassador | Xie Feng |
| Website | us |
TheEmbassy of the People's Republic of China in the United States (simplified Chinese:中国驻美国大使馆;traditional Chinese:中國駐美國大使館;pinyin:zhōngguó zhù měiguó dàshǐ guǎn) is thediplomatic mission of thePeople's Republic of China to theUnited States, located inWashington D.C.[1]
The main chancery is located at 3505 International PlaceNW, Washington, D.C., in theForest Hills neighborhood, while the visa section is located at 2201Wisconsin Avenue NW in theGlover Park neighborhood. China also operatesconsulates general inChicago,Los Angeles,San Francisco, andNew York City.[2][3]
TheQing Empire opened its first mission to the U.S. in 1875, withChen Lanbin as minister. From 1877 to 1883, the legation rented the former luxury town house ofAlexander Shepherd designed byAdolf Cluss on 1705 K Street NW, one of Washington DC's most distinguished addresses at the time.[4]
Then and until 1893, the legation was located inStewart's Castle onDupont Circle;[5] and later, under MinisterWu Tingfang, in the former mansion ofThomas Franklin Schneider at 18th and Q Street, NW.
In 1902, the Qing legation moved to a purpose-built mansion designed byWaddy Butler Wood on 2001 19th Street NW. It is the oldest extant building erected in Washington by a foreign government, following the demolition in 1931 of the former British Legation on Connecticut Avenue, built in 1872.[6] This became the legation of theRepublic of China following the fall of theQing Dynasty in 1912. In 1935, thelegation was upgraded to anembassy, andAlfred Sao-ke Sze became China's first ambassador to the U.S.
The embassy remained in the same building until 1944, then moved to the former Fahnestock Mansion designed byNathan C. Wyeth on 2311Massachusetts Avenue NW, where it stayed until officialdiplomatic relations were terminated on January 1, 1979. That building is now theembassy of Haiti.
Meanwhile, in 1937 the Republic of China's ambassadorChengting T. Wang (Wang Zhengting) started renting theTwin Oaks estate as ambassadorial residence from its then ownerGrace Fortescue, and his successorWellington Koo purchased it outright from her in 1947 for $350,000. The ROC kept it away from the People's Republic by transferring it temporarily for $10 in 1978 to a third-party owner, the Friends of Free China Association,[7] and purchased it again in 1982.[8] In the meantime, theTaiwan Relations Act of April 1979 provided additional legal protection to the Republic of China's ownership of Twin Oaks.
In the wake of the China-U.S. rapprochement of the early 1970s initiated by presidentRichard Nixon and hisNational Security AdvisorHenry Kissinger, the principle of opening a liaison office, to be led by Chinese diplomatHuang Zhen, was agreed during Kissinger's visit to Beijing in February 1973, together with that of a parallel U.S. liaison office in Beijing.[9] The first 10-strong delegation arrived in Washington on April 18, 1973, a few weeks ahead of the formal opening in May, and initially stayed for several months at the luxuryMayflower Hotel.[10]
For the permanent chancery, Huang initially tried to purchase the formerInternational Inn, then called theRamada Inn, a highly visible building onThomas Circle designed byMorris Lapidus and first opened in 1962 (still extant in altered form as the Washington Plaza Hotel).[11] The negotiation foundered on price, however,[12] and the liaison office was established instead in two adjacent buildings on a significantly less prominent location: respectively the Windsor Park hotel and apartments at 2300Connecticut Avenue NW, and the St. Albans apartment building at 2310 Connecticut Avenue NW. The purchase was made at a steep price and publicized in November 1973. The Chinese team, which by then had grown to about 50 people, moved in soon afterwards.[13] On January 1, 1979, this complex became a fully-fledged embassy in line with theJoint Communiqué on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations released the same day.
Meanwhile, in 1973 Huang and his team identified four houses on S Street NW in theKalorama neighborhood of Washington, D.C. for the residence of senior staff, including the formerAdolph C. Miller house at 2230 S Street NW that Huang had intended as his residence.[12] Eventually China only purchased two of these four houses: the former home of educator and diplomatWilliam Richards Castle Jr., designed in 1929 byCarrère and Hastings at 2200 S Street NW; and that of bankers William Andrew Mearns and Edward Stellwagen, designed in 1905 byFrost & Granger at 2301 S Street NW,[14] which became the ambassador's residence. On March 1, 1979, ambassadorChai Zemin went from there to the White House to present hiscredentials toJimmy Carter.[15]
The current chancery building in theInternational Chancery Center was built between 2005 and 2009 on a design byPei Partnership Architects, withI. M. Pei as consultant.[16] The construction contractor wasChina Construction America, a subsidiary ofChina State Construction Engineering.[17] The new building's first day of operation was April 1, 2009.[18]
The previous embassy complex on Connecticut Avenue was torn down in 2012 (except the 1922 St. Albans façade on Connecticut Avenue) to be replaced by a 130-unit apartment building for Chinese embassy employees,[19] on a design byPhil Esocoff, since 2015 a member of the global leadership atGensler.[20]
Soon after the embassy opened in 1979, four members of theMaoist groupRevolutionary Communist Party, USA vandalized and ransacked the embassy as means of protesting the upcomingvisit by Deng Xiaoping to the United States. The police caught and arrested all four members, including the leader, Jim E Loudermilk, who was found in possession of an unregistered firearm. Against U.S. AttorneyEarl J. Silbert's objections, Judge June Green gave the group lenience and sentenced them to probation and $815 restitution.[21]
On February 5, 2014, theUyghur American Association organized a demonstration in front of the Embassy of China in Washington, D.C. to commemorate the 17th anniversary of theGhulja Incident.[22]
In January 2022 a protest against China's hosting of the2022 Winter Olympics was held in Washington, D.C. outside the embassy. Attendees includedChen Guangcheng andChris Smith. Smith described the 2022 Olympics as the “Genocide Games.”[23]
In June 2014 during the113th United States Congress,RepublicanSenatorTed Cruz introduced asimple resolution[24] while RepublicanRepresentativeFrank Wolf also proposed[25] to rename the street in front of the Chinese Embassy after the Chinese dissidentLiu Xiaobo. This would make the embassy's new address "1 Liu Xiaobo Plaza".[26] However, both of them got stuck in the introduction stage.[27][28]BBC reported thatHua Chunying, a spokeswoman for theMinistry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China, dismissed the lawmakers' move as "nothing more than a sheer farce", and restated the government's position that Liu had been convicted for breaking domestic laws.[29]The New York Times also reported that when Hua was asked if China would retaliate by renaming the street in front of theEmbassy of the United States, Beijing, she smiled and asked rhetorically, "Do you think China should take identical action as America?" Many Chinese commented online, suggesting China do just that. Proposals included "Prisoners Abused Street", "Edward Snowden Street", "Osama bin Laden Road" and even "Monica Lewinsky Street".[30]
During the114th United States Congress in 2016, both Sen. Cruz and Rep.Mark Meadows introducedbills to continue the efforts.[31][32] On February 12, the Senate passed Cruz's version unanimously. On February 16, the administration announced that US PresidentBarack Obama wouldveto[33] legislation for the renaming act.[34]Hong Lei, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said at a press conference that China hoped that the Obama administration could "put an end to this political farce."[35][36] On February 23, Cruz's bill was referred toU.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform but never cleared the House to present to President Obama for him to veto it.[37]
During the115th United States Congress, on May 18, 2017, Sen. Cruz and Rep. Meadows re-introduced bills to resume their push to rename the address.[38][39] After Dr. Liu's death on July 13,Bob Fu, a Chinese American human rights activist and pastor, toldThe Texas Tribune that he is "definitely more optimistic" about Cruz's bill getting enacted with PresidentDonald Trump in office.[40]
In 2020, a group of Republican senators and representatives proposed renaming the street after whistleblowerLi Wenliang, who was warned by authorities after drawing attention to the initial outbreak ofCOVID-19 in Wuhan.[41][42]
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