The
Qing Empire opened its first mission to the U.S. in 1875, with
Chen Lanbin as minister. From 1877 to 1883, the legation rented the former luxury town house of
Alexander Shepherd designed by
Adolf Cluss on 1705 K Street NW, one of Washington DC's most distinguished addresses at the time.[4]
In 1902, the Qing legation moved to a purpose-built mansion designed by
Waddy 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 the
Republic of China following the fall of the
Qing Dynasty in 1912. In 1935, the
legation was upgraded to an
embassy, and
Alfred 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 by
Nathan C. Wyeth on 2311 Massachusetts Avenue NW, where it stayed until official diplomatic relations were terminated on January 1, 1979. That building is now the
embassy of Haiti.
Meanwhile, in 1937 the Republic of China's ambassador
Chengting T. Wang (Wang Zhengting) started renting the
Twin Oaks estate as ambassadorial residence from its then owner
Grace Fortescue, and his successor
Wellington 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, the
Taiwan Relations Act of April 1979 provided additional legal protection to the Republic of China's ownership of Twin Oaks.
People's Republic of China
In the wake of the China-U.S. rapprochement of the early 1970s initiated by president
Richard Nixon and his
National Security AdviserHenry Kissinger, the principle of opening a liaison office, to be led by Chinese diplomat
Huang 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 luxury
Mayflower Hotel.[10]
For the permanent chancery, Huang initially tried to purchase the former
International Inn, then called the
Ramada Inn, a highly visible building on
Thomas Circle designed by
Morris 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 2300
Connecticut 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 the
Joint 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 the
Kalorama neighborhood of Washington DC for the residence of senior staff, including the former
Adolph 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 diplomat
William Richards Castle Jr., designed in 1929 by
Carrère and Hastings at 2200 S Street NW; and that of bankers William Andrew Mearns and Edward Stellwagen, designed in 1905 by
Frost & Granger at 2301 S Street NW,[14] which became the ambassador's residence. On March 1, 1979, ambassador
Chai Zemin went from there to the White House to present his
credentials to
Jimmy Carter.[15]
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 by
Phil Esocoff, since 2015 a member of the global leadership at
Gensler.[20]
Protests
Soon after the embassy opened in 1979, four members of the
Maoist group
Revolutionary Communist Party, USA vandalized and ransacked the embassy as means of protesting the upcoming
visit 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. Attorney
Earl J. Silbert's objections, Judge June Green gave the group lenience and sentenced them to probation and $815 restitution.[21]
On February 5, 2014, the
Uyghur American Association organized a demonstration in front of the Embassy of China in Washington, D.C. to commemorate the 17th anniversary of the
Ghulja Incident.[22]
During the
114th United States Congress in 2016, both Sen. Cruz and Rep.
Mark Meadows introduced
bills to continue the efforts.[31][32] On February 12, the senate passed Cruz's version unanimously. On February 16, the administration announced that US President
Barack Obama would
veto[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 to
U.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 the
115th 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, told
The Texas Tribune that he is "definitely more optimistic" about Cruz's bill getting enacted with President
Donald Trump in office.[40]
In 2020, a group of Republican senators and representatives proposed renaming the street after whistleblower
Li Wenliang, who was warned by authorities after drawing attention to the initial outbreak of
COVID-19 in Wuhan.[41][42]
^"Embassy Building". Embassy of the People's Republic of China in the United States of America. July 1, 2012.
Archived from the original on June 1, 2021. Retrieved June 9, 2021.