Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding

The Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding (SACU) is a charity whose goal is to foster understanding between British and Chinese people, established in 1965 and based in Barrow-in-Furness, United Kingdom (UK). It publishes the quarterly China Eye magazine. It liaisons with local British Chinese communities and provides information for Chinese students studying in the UK. In the 1970s the SACU was one of the few organisations that could arrange visits to China. The organisation's first chairman and president was British academic Joseph Needham.

History

See also: Sino-British relations

Established in the late 1940s the British-China Friendship Association (BCFA) provided information to the UK public about politics in China. It was a communist organisation, The Economist reports, which was controlled by the British Communist Party.The Cold War Sino-Soviet dispute in the early 1960s made the organisation's work more difficult, and eventually it closed down. British academic Joseph Needham had resigned from its presidency to seek to form a new organisation; several members joined him.^[1]

On 15 May 1965 the Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding held its inaugural meeting at Church House, Westminster, which was attended by more than 1,000 people.^[2] The SACU had the support of over 200 public figures, including historian Hugh Trevor-Roper, who said "Whether this society will do any good I don't know." In a letter announcing its inauguration, Trevor-Roper, together with historian Arnold J. Toynbee and composer Benjamin Britten, said "This society is being formed to foster mutual comprehension between Britain and China in many different fields."^[3] Needham, the organisation's first chairman and president, gave an address. His main point was that the British and Chinese should try to understand each other better, and he said the organisation would not be political. He ended his speech with a Chinese phrase: "He who comes with the odour of enmity will invite the clash of weapons, he who comes with the fragrance of friendship will be loved like a brother."^[4] British diplomat Derek Bryan was its founding secretary.^[5] The SACU was described by United Press International as a "breakaway from the British-China Friendship Association, which always has been tied to the Moscow-aligned British Communist Party".^[6]

Bryan writes that while the launching was a great occasion, it was "not easy to keep on course". The first annual general meeting on 21 May 1966 was a "stormy one", and in the following years, difficulties were compounded by the deterioration in Sino-British relations. On the other hand, "The achievements were both more numerous and more significant", Bryan reports, and almost all the main activities of the society were started in the first year.^[5] Trevor-Rope resigned from the organisation in June 1966 after he was criticised by members for publishing anti-China articles. He said the organisation has "neither proper bureaucratic responsibility it is government nor proper democratic methods in its functioning".^[7] The Economist reported in September 1967 that questions were raised over its funding and that membership had fallen.^[8] Clyde Sanger in Malcolm MacDonald: Bringing an End to Empire (1995) describes the SACU as moving to "uncritically Maoist" during the Cultural Revolution of 1966–1976.^[9]

In the 1970s the SACU was one of few organisations that could arrange visits to China.^[10] Feminist Ellen Leopold was part of a group of the first Western women to China, later writing about the experience in China Now.^[11] The tours ceased in 1989 when China became more open. At one stage, membership numbers reached 10,000 with offices in London. Today, the organisation is small and run by volunteers.^[12]

Ferdinand Mount wrote in The Spectator in 2006 that "[Trevor-Rope] had lighted upon an infinitely obscure organisation called the Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding, which had become a communist front, broadcasting reports of Chairman Mao’s bottomless benevolence and allegiance to high liberal principles and kept going by the usual stage army of stooges led by the famous Cambridge scientist Joseph Needham".^[13]

Activities

The SACU publishes the quarterly China Eye magazine, the successor to China Now.^[14] The society is based in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria and has branches in Manchester and Cheltenham. It liaisons with local British Chinese communities and provides information for Chinese students studying in the UK. The SACU says they have "always kept independency with no political and governmental affiliations".^[12]

References

1. ^ For the BCFA, see Bryan.
   • For communist and Needham, see "East Wind". The Economist. Vol 215, issue 6352, p. 22, 22 May 1965.
2. ^ "Ties with Peking Sought in Britain; Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding Formed" (subscription required). The New York Times. 15 May 1965. Retrieved 6 September 2010.
   • For Church House, see Bryan.
3. ^ British Move: Operation Pro-China. Montreal Gazette. p. 39. 18 May 1965.
4. ^ Needham, Joseph (1969) [2005]. "The Fragrance of Friendship". Within the Four Seas: The Dialogue of East and West. Routledge. pp. 151–159. ISBN 0415361664
5. ^ ^{a b} Bryan
6. ^ Newman, Robert P. (1992). Owen Lattimore and the "Loss" of China. University of California Press. p. 519. ISBN 0520073886.
7. ^ "Anglo-Chinese What?". The Economist. Vol 219, issue 6406, pp. 24–25, 4 June 1966.
8. ^ "With club and camera in darkest Portland Place". The Economist. Vol 224, issue 6471, p. 25, 2 September 1967.
9. ^ Sanger, Clyde (1995). MacDonald: Bringing an End to Empire. McGill-Queen's University Press p. 425. ISBN 0773513035.
10. ^ "Early SACU Tours". Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding. Retrieved 7 September 2010. Archived by WebCite on 10 November 2010.
11. ^ Love, Barbara J. (ed.) (2006). "Feminists Who Changed America, 1963–1975". University of Illinois Press. p. 276. ISBN 9780252031892
12. ^ ^{a b} "About the Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding". Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding. Retrieved 7 September 2010. Archived by WebCite on 10 November 2010.
13. ^ Mount, Ferdinand. "The Voltaire of St Aldates". The Spectator. 15 July 2006. Retrieved 7 September 2010. Archived by WebCite on 10 November 2010.
14. ^ "China Eye Magazine". Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding. Retrieved 7 September 2010. Archived by WebCite on 10 November 2010.

Sources

• "Background to the formation of SACU in 1965". Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding. Retrieved 7 September 2010. Archived by WebCite on 10 November 2010. An extract from Bryan, Derek (April 1975). China Eye. Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding. p. 2.

External links

• Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding
• The Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding page at the National Archives.