Speech before the Los Angeles World Affairs Council on July 12, 2001:
Respected President Mack,
Distinguished guests, Ladies and gentlemen,
First of all, I would like to
express my heartfelt thanks to President Mack for inviting us here today. I
consider it a great honor to speak before such a respected council. My
colleagues and I come to your country at California State University’s invitation in the hope of seeking
cooperation in Public Administration education. We are impressed and moved by your hospitality and hope we can receive you with the same warmth
in Beijing someday.
My speech today will be
focused on two aspects: Public Administration education in China, and
cooperation between Peking University
and California State University.
As the country with the
biggest population in the world, China remains, even with the speedy
development of the last twenty years, a developing country with many problems
urgently awaiting solutions. In
the next 5 to 10 years, China will steadily promote its economic and social
development, continue the strategic adjustment in economic structure, further
perfect the socialist market economy system, open its doors wider to the
outside world, and, as a result of all this, improve our people’s lives.
China sets peace and
development as the main themes in its promotion of world progress, and strives
to maintain its own stability while encouraging further international
communication. By this means, we hope to promote understanding and friendship
between the people of China and the people of other countries. This is how
China expects to contribute to the international society.
A unified, prosperous and strong China will not pose a threat to
anybody. On the contrary, an
impoverished and undeveloped China will inevitably become a burden to the
world and a disturbing element to the world’s stability.
China is a large country with
a civilization of five thousand years, a population of 1.27 billion and 56
nationalities. To realize prosperity in such a country requires time
and patience. It also
requires a carefully designed plan. This
plan must take into consideration China’s particular circumstances as well
as the specific conditions in different areas within the country. In our
country, five percent of the entire population, i.e., 64 million people, is
illiterate; 30 million people are still living under the poverty line. It is not an easy matter to realize modernization in such a
country; it would not do to blindly follow other countries’ already trodden
paths. Yet there is one tool we
can always rely on, and that is
education.
It is through education that
the future architects and leaders of the country will be produced.
Therefore, China’s leaders have decided to make the training,
attracting and utilizing of talents an essential strategic task that requires
full attention. It is important
to improve the overall quality of our labor force.
It is particularly urgent to train large numbers of professionals in
the information industry, finance, accounting, international trade, law and
administration. These are the
people that we are in great need of. The
Chinese government understands the importance of leaders in China’s future
development. Therefore, it puts special emphasis on the continuous
training of future leaders, in particular the younger generation. In order to meet such needs, three years ago the central
government initiated the first rank major of “Public
Administration”
and two years ago established the degree of MPA, trying it out at PKU and a
few other leading universities in China.
Established in 1898, Peking University attracted a large group of
pioneers advocating what is called the New Culture Movement and the liberation
of minds. This marked the beginning of the campaign for “democracy and
freedom” in China. PKU contributed greatly to the spread of Marxism and
other advanced Western thought in China and later to the rise of the Chinese
nation.
On May the Fourth three years ago, PKU celebrated its
centennial. It was a significant
event in China. Jiang Zeming,
President of the People’s Republic of China, sent his congratulations to PKU
on behalf of the state. It was
also his hope that PKU would, in the new historical stage, stride toward
becoming a first-class university of the international community, and play a
more important role in both the country’s development and its international
relations.
At present, PKU is one of two universities that enjoy the most privileged support from the government. The university has a total of more than 17 thousand teaching faculty and supporting staff and 40 thousand students. In the student body undergraduates account for 12 thousand, master candidates for about 7 thousand, and doctoral candidates for about 3 thousand. In addition, we also have over 2 thousand international students from 77 countries. PKU has established relationships with over 200 universities from 50 countries. In order to realize the strategic goals of the country, PKU has also rapidly developed continuing and long distance education. Cooperating with the central government and local governments at all levels, PKU has trained a large number of administrators through all kinds of programs. Furthermore, with the establishment of many new majors, PKU successively opens specialized administrative schools and enthusiastically carries out international cooperation in training MBAs, MPAs and so on.
This brings us back to the PKU
delegation’s goal in making this trip, which is to explore, with the support
of the California government, the possibility of further cooperating with CSU
in the training of public administrators.
California has always been
known as “The golden state”. It
well deserves this name with its rich natural resources, talented people,
spectacular scenery and pleasant climate.
Californians have long exhibited a craving for exploration, innovation
and challenge. It is this spirit
that accelerates the rocketing development of the hi-tech industry in Silicon
Valley. It is also this spirit
that sparkles in the radiant stars of Hollywood.
With this spirit, Californians have become known for their hospitality
and cooperative attitude. California’s
government has long been considered one of the most efficient local
governments in the U.S., especially in the field of public education.
Today, the economy of this state already constitutes 14% of the entire
American economy, and is larger than the economies of the UK and France. It
has become the source of the impetus of American economic development.
In such an environment I
believe we are justified to have faith in our cooperation with California State University.
At this time I would like to
focus on the blueprint of the two institutions’ cooperation.
Our goal is to train the leaders of the 21st century.
Today, we are in greater need than ever for leaders with superb
political wisdom and a wide vision for the international arena.
They need to be exposed to different cultures and customs and thus
acquire a deeper understanding of the different peoples of the world.
This is the primary starting point of the cooperation between the two
universities.
As to the form of cooperation,
I believe the final goal is the establishment of an “open virtual school of
public administration”. This is
to say, we are going to use regular visits, internet and other communication
means to realize speedy and efficient communication between the two
institutions on information and academic resources.
Thus we can maximize the effect of bringing together our resources and
sharing our advantages.
First, we can share the
high-quality human resources of the two institutions. Second, we can enrich the two universities’ information
resources by building together a common case pool, a book collection and a
research database by means of the internet and joint exploration of the academic
trends. Third, in regards to teaching resources, the two institutions can
jointly design and build new courses, compile and select textbooks, make
teaching plans, and so on. Finally,
we can also share research resources by regularly holding academic symposiums,
carrying out cross-boarder
research and thus promote the development of Public Administration studies.
At this time, we have two
short-term plans: one is to hold the first “Public Administration Symposium”
as soon as possible. The
other plan is to exchange teachers and students between the two institutions so
as to strengthen our mutual understanding and to explore more ways to cooperate
with each other.
As mentioned above, PKU has
assembled a high quality faculty over the years. Our students, too, are very
good and have great potential. In
addition, we have accumulated a large number of public administration cases.
In a word, we already have a body of research that is not only creative but also
cohesive.
For its part, California State
University has rich experience in training MPAs. It also has a qualified and experienced body of professors.
We believe, with the support of the California government
and private sectors, and
with our joint effort, our cooperation in training public servants and other
public administrators for Chinese government will surely lead to success!
America is the biggest developed
country in the world. China is the
biggest developing country. We
share interests and responsibilities on many issues crucial to the existence and
development of human kind. A
friendly and cooperative working relationship between the two countries is
highly significant not only to ourselves, but the entire world. I sincerely hope
for an everlasting friendship between the two nations and satisfactory
cooperation between PKU and CSU. I
also cordially welcome more friends to visit China and Peking University.
Thank you!