"This volume is the first publication in a new subseries of the Foreign Relations series that documents the most important foreign policy issues of the Jimmy Carter presidential administration. The documentation in this volume focuses primarily on the normalization of diplomatic relations between the United States and the People's Republic of China, as well as the concomitant ending of formal diplomatic relations between the United States and the Republic of China (Taiwan). This shift in formal recognition played out against a background of renewed fighting in Indochina, deterioration in U.S.-Soviet relations, and political and economic changes in China associated with Deng Xiaoping's consolidation of power. Over the course of the period documented, the United States and the People's Republic of China accelerated the development of economic, cultural, technological, and, following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, military relations"--Overview.