Michel Oksenberg

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Michel Oksenberg (1938-2001) was a leading American political scientist studying China who moved between academia and policy work. He was closely involved in the normalization of U.S.-China relations undertaken during the Carter administration.

In academia, Oksenberg was on the faculty at University of Michigan for twenty years, and also taught at Stanford, Columbia, and the East-West Center in Honolulu. He "trained more students in contemporary Chinese studies during the last 25 years" than any other scholar, and was active in facilitating access for western scholars to China in the post-Mao era.

[edit] Role in U.S.-China Relations

From his Stanford obituary:

From 1977 to 1980, Oksenberg took a leave of absence from Michigan to serve as a senior staff member on the National Security Council, with special responsibility for China and Indochina. In 1978, he began the process of helping to bring about the normalization of U.S. relations with China. President Richard M. Nixon had started the thaw with his groundbreaking visit in 1972 but, by 1978, the United States still recognized the government of Taiwan as the legitimate representative of China. Oksenberg helped the U.S. government take the politically difficult step of allowing a mutual defense treaty between Taiwan and the United States to expire and recognizing the leadership in Beijing as the legitimate government of China.

[edit] External links