Eight months after the Chinese ping pong team visited the United States, the National Committee made history again by hosting the first performing arts company from the People's Republic of China — the Shenyang Acrobatic Troupe — for a four-week, four-city tour.
In September 1973, the National Committee helped facilitate the Philadelphia Orchestra's historic trip to China, paving the way for other American orchestras. The Boston Symphony followed in 1979.
The National Committee brought the first group of Chinese mayors and deputy mayors to U.S. soil in September, 1978. Led by Beijing Deputy Mayor Zhao Pengfei and Shanghai Deputy Mayor Yen Yumin, the 19-member delegation also included city planners, architects, and engineers. The visit was the first of approximately 50 exchanges the Committee has sponsored in the area of municipal and state/provincial management and planning.
Academic exchange with the People's Republic reached new heights as a U.S. delegation of university and college presidents visited China in 1974 and was received by then Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping.
Under the National Committee's auspices, a delegation of 17 young American political leaders — some serving in elected positions at the state or local level, others leaders of political organizations — visited the People's Republic of China in May 1977. Assembled with the cooperation of the American Council of Young Political Leaders, it was the first such visit of its kind.
George H.W. Bush and Deng Xiaoping met for the first time in October 1975, when an 18-member delegation of American leaders active in public education on world affairs visited China to discuss international issues.
Launched when only a trickle of Chinese graduate students and scholars came to the United States for study, the Scholar Orientation Program was created to supplement academic training that Chinese scholars received at U.S. institutions by providing them with greater exposure to America's history, culture, and key institutions.
Expanding U.S.-China exchange programs beyond sports and culture, the National Committee and American Society of Newspaper Editors brought the first delegation of journalists from the People's Republic of China to the United States in 1973. Since then, several hundred journalists and media executives have participated in NCUSCR exchange programs and media-related conferences, workshops, and internships.
This two-way exchange project introduced and facilitated community planning for HIV/AIDS education, prevention, and treatment through training workshops, observation of working models, and dialogue between American and Chinese government officials, public health professionals, and staff of community-based organizations. The main project focuses were the community planning models used by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in particular, and the role of the community in HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment in general.