Embassy of China, Washington, D.C.

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Embassy of China, Washington, D.C.
Embassy of the People's Republic of China in the United States of America
中华人民共和国驻美利坚合众国大使馆
Chinese embassy gate Washington 3211.JPG
LocationWashington, D.C.
Address3505 International Place, N.W.
Coordinates38°56′33″N 77°3′59″W / 38.94250°N 77.06639°W / 38.94250; -77.06639Coordinates: 38°56′33″N 77°3′59″W / 38.94250°N 77.06639°W / 38.94250; -77.06639
AmbassadorQin Gang
Websitewww.china-embassy.org/eng/

The Embassy of the People's Republic of China in Washington, D.C. is the diplomatic mission of the People's Republic of China to the United States. The main chancery is located at 3505 International Place, Northwest, Washington, D.C., in the Van Ness neighborhood, while the visa section is located at 2201 Wisconsin Avenue Northwest in the Glover Park neighborhood. The embassy also operates consulates-general in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York City.[1][2]

As of 2021, the ambassador is Qin Gang, appointed in July 2021 and the twelfth holder of the role since the opening of the liaison office in May 1973.[3]

History[]

Qing Empire and Republic of China[]

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]

Then and until 1893, the legation was located in Stewart's Castle on Dupont Circle;[5] and later, under Minister Wu Tingfang, in the former mansion of Thomas Franklin Schneider at 18th and Q Street, NW.

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 Adviser Henry 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 current chancery building in the was built between 2005 and 2009 on a design by Pei Partnership Architects, with I. M. Pei as consultant.[16] The construction contractor was China Construction America, a subsidiary of China 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 by , since 2015 a member of the global leadership at Gensler.[20]

Protests[]

Soon after the embassy opened, four members of the Revolutionary Communist Party vandalized and ransacked the embassy. 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]

Street renaming proposals[]

In June 2014 during the 113th United States Congress, Republican Senator Ted Cruz introduced a simple resolution[23] while Republican Representative Frank Wolf also proposed[24] to rename the street in front of the Chinese Embassy after the Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo. This would make the embassy's new address "1 Liu Xiaobo Plaza".[25] But both of them got stuck in the introduction stage.[26][27] BBC reported that Hua Chunying, a spokeswoman for the Ministry 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 Mr. Liu had been convicted for breaking domestic laws.[28] The New York Times also reported that when Hua was asked if China would retaliate by renaming the street in front of the Embassy 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. Proposal included "Prisoners Abused Street", "Edward Snowden Street", "Osama bin Laden Road" and even "Monica Lewinsky Street".[29]

During the 114th United States Congress in 2016, both Sen. Cruz and Rep. Mark Meadows introduced bills to continue the efforts.[30][31] On February 12, the senate passed Cruz's version unanimously. On February 16, the administration announced that US President Barack Obama would veto[32] legislation for the renaming act.[33] 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."[34][35] 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.[36]

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.[37][38] 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.[39]

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.[40][41]

Gallery[]

  • Stewart's Castle on Dupont Circle, Qing Empire legation 1886-93 (demolished in 1901)

  • Mansion of Thomas Franklin Schneider on 18th Street NW, legation around 1900 (demolished in 1958)

  • Legation/embassy from 1902 to 1944 on 19th Street NW (now Chinese Embassy condominiums)

  • ROC embassy from 1944 to 1978, previously Gibson Fahnestock House on Embassy Row (now Embassy of Haiti)

  • Twin Oaks Estate, Cleveland Park

  • PRC Liaison Office then embassy from 1973 to 2009 on Connecticut Avenue (demolished in 2012)

  • The current chancery building viewed from International Place

  • Cloverdale, now seat of the embassy's Education Office

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ "China visa and U.S. Passport expedited service provided by VisaRite".
  2. ^ "Fox News: China threatens retaliation after is says US ordered it to close Houston Consulate".
  3. ^ "Chinese Ambassadors to the United States of America". Embassy of the People's Republic of China in the United States of America. Retrieved June 26, 2014.
  4. ^ "The Alexander Shepherd Mansion, Icon of Washington's Gilded Age". Streets of Washington. March 27, 2017.
  5. ^ "Lost History: Stewart's Castle on Dupont Circle". Ghosts of DC. March 28, 2013.
  6. ^ James M. Goode (2003). Capital Losses: A Cultural History of Washington's Destroyed Buildings. Smithsonian. p. 264.
  7. ^ Steven Knipp (October 27, 2015). "The Washington DC Embassy that's Larger than the Size of the White House Compound". Columbian College of Arts and Sciences.
  8. ^ "History of the Tregaron Estate". Tregaron Conservancy.
  9. ^ James Mann (2000). About Face: A History of America's Curious Relationship with China, from Nixon to Clinton. New York: Vintage Books. p. 63.
  10. ^ Linda Charlton (April 19, 1973). "Chinese Mission Arrives in Washington". The New York Times.
  11. ^ "Memorandum of Conversation - Washington, May 15, 1973, 10:20–11:00 a.m." U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian.
  12. ^ a b "Memorandum of Conversation - San Clemente, California, July 6, 1973, 10 a.m." U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian.
  13. ^ John R. Rarick (November 26, 1973), "The Red Chinese spend millions on proletariat housing in Washington" (PDF), Congressional Records / Extensions of Remarks, Government Publishing Office: 37989
  14. ^ Emily Hotaling Eig; Julie Mueller (1989). "National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Sheridan-Kalorama Historic District". Traceries.
  15. ^ Sun Guowei (March 19, 2020). "A Red-Letter Day to Remember". Science Cat.
  16. ^ Suevon Lee (May 28, 2008). "China's new embassy in U.S. reflects growing clout". The New York Times.
  17. ^ "The Embassy of China in the United States". China Construction America.
  18. ^ "Embassy Building". Embassy of the People's Republic of China in the United States of America. July 1, 2012.
  19. ^ John Kelly (November 2, 2013). "Confused by the facade that overlooks Connecticut Avenue? Here's the story". The Washington Post.
  20. ^ "Members Only Construction Tour: Chinese Embassy Residence". AIA DC. 2019.
  21. ^ "4 Found Guilty of Destruction at Chinese Embassy". The Washington Post. August 4, 1979. Archived from the original on November 17, 2015. Retrieved November 14, 2015.
  22. ^ "Uyghur American Association - Ghulja Massacre Protest". February 13, 2014. Retrieved May 7, 2020 – via YouTube.
  23. ^ "Bills and Resolutions". U.S. Senate. Retrieved July 16, 2017.
  24. ^ "Appropriations Committee Approves Fiscal Year 2015 State and Foreign Operations Bill". U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations. Retrieved July 17, 2017.
  25. ^ Beech, Hannah (June 25, 2014). "Congress Votes to Rename Road by Chinese Embassy After Jailed Dissident". Time. Retrieved June 26, 2014.
  26. ^ Cruz, Ted (June 24, 2014). "S.Res.482 - A resolution expressing the sense of the Senate that the area between the intersections of International Drive, Northwest Van Ness Street, Northwest International Drive, Northwest and International Place, Northwest in Washington, District of Columbia, should be designated as 'Liu Xiaobo Plaza'". Congress.gov. Retrieved July 16, 2017.
  27. ^ Granger, Kay (June 27, 2014). "H.R.5013 - Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2015". Congress.gov. Retrieved July 16, 2017.
  28. ^ "US push to rename Chinese embassy street after dissident". BBC News. June 25, 2014. Retrieved July 17, 2017.
  29. ^ Tatlow, Didi Kirsten (June 25, 2014). "Dispatches From China Search Sinosphere Search To: Chinese Embassy, United States; Address: No. 1 Liu Xiaobo Plaza". The New York Times. Retrieved July 17, 2017.
  30. ^ Cruz, Ted (February 23, 2016). "S.2451 - A bill to designate the area between the intersections of International Drive, Northwest and Van Ness Street, Northwest and International Drive, Northwest and International Place, Northwest in Washington, District of Columbia, as "Liu Xiaobo Plaza", and for other purposes". Congress.gov. Retrieved July 16, 2017.
  31. ^ Meadows, Mark. "H.R.4452 - To designate the area between the intersections of International Drive Northwest and Van Ness Street Northwest and International Drive Northwest and International Place Northwest in Washington, District of Columbia, as "Liu Xiaobo Plaza", and for other purposes". Congress.gov. Retrieved July 16, 2017.
  32. ^ "Vetoes by President Barack H. Obama". U.S. Senate. Retrieved July 16, 2017.
  33. ^ "Obama to veto bill to rename Washington plaza after jailed China dissident". The Washington Post. February 16, 2016. Retrieved February 16, 2016.
  34. ^ "Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hong Lei's Regular Press Conference". Ministry of Foreign Affairs of PRC. February 16, 2016. Retrieved July 17, 2017.
  35. ^ Beech, Hannah (February 16, 2016). "China Hates That the Road By Its U.S. Embassy Could Be Named After a Top Dissident". Time. Retrieved July 17, 2017.
  36. ^ Cruz, Ted (February 23, 2016). "S.2451 - A bill to designate the area between the intersections of International Drive, Northwest and Van Ness Street, Northwest and International Drive, Northwest and International Place, Northwest in Washington, District of Columbia, as "Liu Xiaobo Plaza", and for other purposes". Congress.gov. Retrieved July 16, 2017.
  37. ^ Cruz, Ted (May 18, 2017). "S.1187 - A bill to designate the area between the intersections of International Drive, Northwest and Van Ness Street, Northwest and International Drive, Northwest and International Place, Northwest in Washington, District of Columbia, as "Liu Xiaobo Plaza", and for other purposes". Congress.gov. Retrieved July 16, 2017.
  38. ^ Meadows, Mark (May 18, 2017). "H.R.2537 - To designate the area between the intersections of International Drive Northwest and Van Ness Street Northwest and International Drive Northwest and International Place Northwest in Washington, District of Columbia, as "Liu Xiaobo Plaza", and for other purposes". Congress.gov. Retrieved July 16, 2017.
  39. ^ Thomas, Neil (July 15, 2017). "After dissident's death, Ted Cruz hopeful about changing Chinese Embassy address". Texas Tribune. Retrieved July 16, 2017.
  40. ^ "US senators propose renaming street outside Chinese embassy after Wuhan whistleblower". The Guardian. May 8, 2020. Retrieved August 4, 2020.
  41. ^ Coleman, Justine (May 7, 2020). "GOP lawmakers propose renaming street in front of Chinese embassy after Wuhan whistleblower doctor". The Hill. Retrieved August 4, 2020.

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