ABSTRACT
Chapter 4 examines US cities’ responses to Washington’s China pivot. It argues that numerous municipal officials did not embrace Carter’s decision to recognize China. Instead, they crafted strategies departing from the State Department’s designation of the ROC as a non-sovereign entity. Partly driven by Taiwanese economic inducements and partly by anti-communist ideology, they formalized relations with Taiwanese cities that featured sisterhood agreements, exchanges of visits, as well as economic and cultural cooperation. At the same time, many reached out to mainland Chinese cities, thereby instituting a ‘two China’ or ‘one China, one Taiwan’ policy at the municipal level. The chapter features two major case studies: San Francisco’s sisterhood agreement with Shanghai and Los Angeles’ sister-city accord with Guangzhou.
