The Honorable Arthur W. Hummel, Jr.
USCPF Founding Member
Born in China of American missionary parents, Ambassador Arthur W. Hummel, Jr. retained a lifelong personal and scholarly interest in Asia.
In 1950 Arthur Hummel Jr. joined the Sate Department and began a 35 year diplomatic career in which he achieved the highest rank attainable by a Foreign Service Officer, eventually becoming the most senior career diplomat in the State Department. He attended the National War College in 1960, becoming the Deputy Director of the Voice of America from 1961 to 1963. He became the Deputy Chief of Mission at Taipei in 1965 to 1968. Hummel Jr. was appointed Ambassador to Burma from 1968 to 1971. He acted as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs in 1971 until 1975, and he served as Ambassador to Pakistan from 1977 to 1981.
Arthur Jr. served as U.S. Ambassador to the People's Republic of China from 1981 to 1985. Ambassador Hummel’s tenure was highlighted by his position of chief negotiator of the 1982 United States-China Joint Communiqué on U. S. Arms Sales to Taiwan. It was in this strategic communiqué that the United States reaffirmed its "one China" policy and declared its intention to reduce arms sales to Taiwan gradually.
After Ambassador Hummel retired from the Foreign Service he became one of the founding members of the U.S.-China Policy Foundation so that he might continue his efforts to increase understanding between the people of the United States and China.
Ambassador Arthur Hummel died on February 6, 2001.