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Combining original research with contemporary scholarship, The United States and China re-examines over two centuries of interaction between the United States and China in a changing world. It explains the foundations and character of their political, economic, military, social, and cultural relations, and shows how they have come to shape the domestic and international affairs of the two countries. American-Chinese relations have also been affected by national and global forces. Societal interchanges and government-level interactions are the dual themes of this research survey. Since 1784 when the first American ship, the Empress of China, landed in Canton (Guangzhou), U.S.-Chinese relations have moved from the periphery to the center of strategic attention, for both countries.