When US President Donald Trump looked back on China-US relations at banquets in Beijing and Washington earlier this year, he twice returned to an early chapter of the relationship—the first American trading voyage to China.
On August 28, 1784, the Empress of China sailed into Guangzhou.
That history dates to 1784, when the Empress of China sailed from New York to Guangzhou, marking an early milestone in direct trade between the newly independent United States and China.
During the mid-Qing period, foreign merchant ships bound for Guangdong were required to anchor at Guangzhou's Huangpu Ancient Port.
For Chen Yiping, a professor at Jinan University's School of International Studies, the voyage offered a glimpse into how the two countries first came into contact—and why Guangzhou became the destination for one of the earliest American ventures into the China trade.
"The Empress of China can be seen as the beginning of China-US relations," Chen said.
Why Guangzhou?
The choice of Guangzhou was not accidental.
By the time the Empress of China arrived in 1784, Guangzhou had an established system and network for overseas trade. Western merchants conducted business there under the trading rules of the time, working through Chinese merchant intermediaries.
For the newly independent United States, the voyage also reflected an immediate search for new commercial opportunities.
The Revolutionary War had disrupted the young country's economy, while British restrictions had limited American merchants' access to some traditional markets. Trade with China offered another route into the wider Asian market.
The Empress of China left New York in February 1784 and reached Guangzhou in August. Its cargo was sold there, and the ship returned with Chinese goods including tea and porcelain.
But for the American merchants who arrived in Guangzhou, China was not simply a new market. It was also a market they had to learn how to navigate.
"They needed to learn how trade was conducted in Guangzhou," Chen said.
The city already had established practices for dealing with Western merchants. American traders had to enter that existing system and learn how business was conducted there.
"So there was mutual need," Chen said. "And at that time, the relationship was characterized more by mutual respect."
The encounter gradually moved beyond trade. Chen said American interest in China expanded from goods such as tea and porcelain to Chinese culture, social thought and other aspects of Chinese society.
Trump explicitly recalled this history during his May visit to China, when he mentioned 1784, American merchant Samuel Shaw and the first American trading ship to reach China. At a White House state dinner on Sept. 24, he again looked back on the early trade between the two countries, recalling the first trade ships from New York reaching the banks of the Pearl River and the exchange of "goods, knowledge, customs and ideas."
From trade to shared history
The ties that began with commerce developed through other forms of contact in the centuries that followed.
Trade was accompanied by the movement of people and ideas between China and the United States. Later, the two countries became allies during World War II and fought side by side against fascist aggression. Xi Jinping and Trump both recalled that shared wartime experience during Chinese President Xi's state visit to the United States.
For Chen, however, the historical parallels have their limits. The two countries, their economies and the international environment are fundamentally different from those of the 18th century.
What is worth noting, he said, is how the relationship has changed through different forms of contact—from early trade and cultural exchanges to cooperation during a major global conflict.
That history also puts the latest China-US consensus in a broader context.
The two sides agreed during Xi's visit to build a constructive relationship of strategic stability based on "respect, fairness and reciprocity."
"The emphasis on respect, fairness and reciprocity is important," Chen said.
Reporter | Yao Jingsen
Photos | Guangzhou Thirteen Hongs Museum
