Michel Charles Oksenberg (October 12, 1938 – February 22, 2001) was an American political scientist and China watcher who moved between academia and policy work.
"[4] From 1977 to 1980, Oksenberg took a leave of absence from the University of Michigan to serve as a senior staff member on the National Security Council under the Carter administration, overseeing issues involving China and East Asia.
That was politically difficult since it required the United States to annul its mutual defense treaty with Taiwan.
[2] After an initial but less successful trip to Beijing in 1977 with Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, Oksenberg traveled with National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski to Beijing in early 1978, where they met with Leonard Woodcock, the head of the U.S. liaison office there, to lay the groundwork for establishing diplomatic ties between the two countries.
Oksenberg helped work out an intelligence-sharing arrangement with Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping on his visit to the United States in 1979.