The Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding (SACU) is an organisation established in 1965 to promote understanding and friendship between British and Chinese people.The organisation has no political affiliation and is open to all who are interested in China and its peoples. It is a registered charity and currently operates with branches in different parts of the country. In the 1970s SACU offered a rare point of contact with the PRC authorities: it provided information at a time when there were few other sources available and was one of the few organisations that could arrange visits . The organisation's first chairman and president was the much esteemed scientist and sinologist, Joseph Needham, FRS, Fellow and President of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.