This paper focuses on a significant cluster of scientists based in the United Kingdom whose engagement with China stemmed from a mixture of socialism, scientific internationalism, and scholarly friendships. Some, like Joseph Needham and J.D. Bernal, were ‘ideological notables’ as well known for their left-wing politics as their academic achievements. They had high-level positions in international organizations, occupied prominent positions within networks of like-minded academics and activists and had public profiles extending far beyond the world of science. Others, such as Howard E. Hinton or Kurt Mendelssohn, might not have enjoyed the same fame but they were nevertheless well-established figures in their scientific fields. Their visits to China after 1949 therefore had not only scientific value, but also provided the Chinese Communist Party distinctive propaganda opportunities diffracted through the lens of scientific exchange. Yet there was also a third category that included scientists like Kathleen Lonsdale and Dorothy Hodgkin, whose interactions were not so overtly propagandistic but still benefitted both scientists and Chinese policymakers.
In all, such scientists’ engagement lay along a spectrum of different modes, incorporating elements of propaganda and scientific exchange in varying measures. Their common features and individual attractions highlight Chinese foreign policymakers’ and scientists’ priorities and interests from the latter years of the Chinese Civil War through to the early years of rapprochement and increasing international integration in the 1970s. This indicates that such scientists ought to be treated as a distinct group with its own characteristics and motivations rather than as identikit Socialist-world sympathizers.
