Even during the Revolutionary War, American tradeships were in China. The China trade was always important to America. Jefferson was looking for a cross-continent river route to the West Coast, and then a direct shipping route to Asia, when he sent Lewis and Clark out, and this idea continued to dominate thinking, even being important in the development of the transcontinental railroad and the Panama Canal, and part of the tension leading to the Civil War. China was never viewed as any kind of colony by America though, always as its own country. That is why Taiwan is hardly ever treated as an actual American Territory, even though the diplomatic structure has been maintained as such.
Who knew . . . that the treasures of the orient would be Beanie Babies?