Development of Foreign Relations
Acting in accordance with the above-mentioned principles, China established diplomatic relations with 19 countries in the 19 months between October 1949 and May 1951. Between the second half of the 1950s and the late 1960s, a large number of newly independent nations established diplomatic relations with China. By the end of 1969, the countries having diplomatic relations with China had increased to 50. In the 1970s, the door was opened, allowing normal relations between China and the United States, and China's legitimate seat in the United Nations and the Security Council was restored. These developments allowed China's foreign relations to enter a new stage. Japan, the United States and other Western countries joined a great number of Third World countries in establishing diplomatic relations with China, raising the total number of countries having diplomatic relations with China to 121 by the end of 1979. In the 1980s, even more countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Oceania established diplomatic relations with China. Since the beginning of the 1990s, China has established diplomatic relations with still more countries, such as Israel, the Republic of Korea and South Africa, as well as with the newly independent republics that emerged from the former Soviet Union. By the end of 1999, 161 countries had diplomatic relations with China.
(Source: website of China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs)