SACU set out to inform the British public about China at a time when the country was internationally isolated, not recognised by the US and involved in a deepening split with the Soviet Union.

[2] He was joined by other leading BCFA members, Joan Robinson, Professor of Economics at Cambridge, Derek Bryan, former British diplomat,[3] businessmen who had been involved in the 'Ice Breaker's Mission'[4] to open trade with China in the 1950s.

They gained support from over 200 prestigious sponsors from the arts, sciences, universities and public life, including eight MPs from all three parties, notably Jeremy Thorpe and Andrew Faulds, co-founder of the Great Britain China Parliamentary group in 1968; five bishops and other leading religious figures; and from the trade unions, Ernie Roberts, Assistant General Secretary of the AEU.

[5] In a letter announcing its inauguration, Trevor-Roper, together with historian Arnold J. Toynbee and composer Benjamin Britten, said "This society is being formed to foster mutual comprehension between Britain and China in many different fields.

[13] Many of the organisation's high-profile sponsors fell away but membership grew as SACU attracted young people opposed to the Vietnam War and with an interest in China's ‘socialist road’ and Mao Zedong thought.

Following the improvement in Sino-British relations after 1972, the Foreign Office proceeded to sponsor and directly fund the Great Britain China Centre[16] to ‘act as an umbrella organisation bringing together the various unofficial bodies’.

[17] Nevertheless, as the only national organisation in Britain concerned to offer a forum for discussion about the rapid and often confusing developments and policy changes during the last years of the Cultural Revolution and the transition to reform in the 1980s, SACU continued to attract members.

[22] Nevertheless, in its first 25 years of existence SACU could claim to have played an important role in stimulating interest in and providing regular information about China and the Chinese people.

Difficulties were compounded by disagreements over the purposes of an organisation promoting friendly understanding with China following the suppression of the pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square in 1989 and the membership started to decline.

In particular, SACU has set up an Education Fund to assist in the vocational training of people in co-operative business methods in rural North West China.

It remains reliant on volunteers who share an interest in China and continue to pursue the basic aims of the organisation through public meetings and branch activities .