Diplomatic Career
Shen served for a time as an English-Chinese language interpreter and secretary for Chinese Nationalist leader Chang Kai-shek. He was then appointed spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and head of the GIO.
Shen fled to Taiwan with the Nationalists when Chang Kai-shek moved his government to Taipei following their defeat by Mao Zedong's Communist forces in 1949. Shen served as Taiwan's ambassador to Australia from 1966 until 1968 before returning to Taiwan to become vice minister of foreign affairs between 1968 and 1971.
James Shen was appointed as Taiwan's ambassador to the United States in 1971. Shen arrived in Washington D.C. to assume his post just month's before U.S. President Richard Nixon visited mainland China on an official visit. While in China, Nixon signed a communiqué with Zedong's government. The communique officially created the United States's One-China policy which acknowledged Taiwan as part of China, not as the legitimate government of all of China or an independent state. The communique was a huge blow to Taiwan's Nationalist government, which maintained that it alone was the sole legitimate government of all of China.
James Shen continued his efforts throughout the 1970s to persuade the United States to continue to recognize Taiwan and the Nationalists. The Nationalists and the United States had been important World War II and Cold War allies until the Nixon Administration. However, Shen's diplomacy proved in vain. The United States, under President Jimmy Carter, officially severed diplomatic relations with Taiwan in 1979 as part of its One-China policy.
James Shen returned to Taipei, in January 1979 and retired following the end of diplomatic relations with the U.S. He lived in Taiwan for the remainder of his life. He wrote a highly critical book about the US withdrawing its recognition of Taiwan, the event of which he was a first-hand witness.
Shen died at his home in Taipei on July 12, 2007, following a lengthy illness. He was 98 years old and was survived by his wife, Wei-yi Shen.
Since 1979, Taiwan no longer maintains an embassy in the United States, since there is no official diplomatic relations between the two countries. However, Taiwan continues to operate a series of representative offices, called the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Offices, in Washington D.C. and 12 other American cities.
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