The United States and China are the world's two biggest greenhouse gas emitters. The two countries also lead the world in developing and deploying the latest green technologies like renewables, electric vehicles, and carbon capture systems. Can the United States and China collaborate on fighting climate change?

In April 1972, the National Committee made history by hosting the Chinese Table Tennis Team in round two of what became widely known as Ping Pong Diplomacy. The watershed visit — the first-ever of a delegation from the People's Republic of China to the United States — set the Committee on its path of becoming the pre-eminent exchange organization between the United States and China.

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’s Track II Strategic Security Dialogue (at times called the Northeast Asia Strategic Security Dialogue) began in 1999 and stemmed from an earlier National Committee mil/mil program and the joint Stanford-Harvard Preventive Defense Project (PDP), a research collaboration of Stanford University and Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government set up by former Secretary of Defense William Perry and Assistant Secretary Ash Carter.

Following a cooling of relations in the early 1990s, the National Committee revitalized the U.S.-China military dialogue, sending a group of retired four-star generals and admirals to China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan in 1994 and 1996. Since then, the success of this program has continued to foster constructive exchange, in addition to inspiring other programs like the U.S.-China Strategic Security Dialogue.

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.

American and Chinese experts from academia, think tanks, and industry gather for a two-day dialogue exploring how significant climate change and energy developments are altering each country's energy outlook.

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.

In 2011, the National Committee, in partnership with the Center for Legal Assistance to Pollution Victims at China University of Political Science and Law, sponsored a two-way exchange for environmental law professionals in China and the United States.