Consulate History (Click to download PDF file)

 

Consulate General Records U.S.-South China Relationship

Guangzhou—the steamy, sprawling South Chinese city of more than 8 million—may bring to mind thoughts of skyscrapers and Cantonese food, but the Foreign Service officers who work there see life with a slightly broader perspective due to the work of three first-tour officers at the U.S. Consulate General in Guangzhou: Chris Vogt, Mark Lanning and Mark Wuebbels.

Inspired by a similar project done by the U.S. Consulate General in Shanghai, the trio contacted and interviewed historians, academics and State Department veterans involved in events marking the United States’ two centuries-plus presence in South China.

The project’s record begins with theestablishment of diplomatic relations in Guangzhou in 1784 and fast-forwards through the 19th and early 20th centuries, when Guangzhou was a trade center and a meeting area for 1911’s revolutionaries, who overthrew the Ching dynasty.

It also notes the end of America’s presence in China in the late 1940s and the return of U.S. diplomats in 1980. Comments from the first consul general of the post-normalization era, Richard Williams, and current Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Richard Boucher provide insights into a 1980s China in transition.

In an interview for the history, Boucher noted the consulate’s humble beginnings onan upper floor of an aging hotel—and the old black telex machine that sat on a board on top of a bathtub.
 
The staff “had to cut paper tape and then run it through [the telex] to send [unclassified] messages to Beijing,” he said.  

Reflecting how much has changed, Consulate General Guangzhou now has 55 American officers and 190 Locally Employed staff. The consular section alone has more than 100 LE staff and handles one of the highest-volume visa workloads in the world, including immigrant visa and adoption applications for all of China.