USC to open first research institute in China

The University of Southern California (USC) plans to open in September the first research institute dedicated to the study of United States and China relations, the Los Angeles Times reported on Wednesday.

University officials are currently on a weeklong tour of China to lay the groundwork for the institute.

The United States has numerous institutions focusing broadly on Asian studies, but USC's institute, with about 30 scholars, will be the first one dedicated to studying the relationship between the United States and China, according to USC Associate Vice Provost Howard Gillman.

USC is an ideal location for such an institute, with California boasting some of the largest populations of Chinese Americans in the nation, Gillman told the paper.

Vice Provost Elizabeth Garrett said in an interview from China: "The feeling here is that the U.S.-China relationship is the defining relationship of the world."

She said the institute could prompt a variety of new college majors, including one focused on China trade policies.

Gillman said USC has a lot of students in and from China. "We have leadership relations in China," he said in Los Angeles. "The institute just seemed like a natural extension."

The institute, expected to cost several million dollars, would reach beyond run-of-the-mill topics, he said.

"We don't want to be a talking-head institute that simply comments on the day-to-day Washington debate about China," he said. "We want it to be a broadly defined institute that looks at all different variables like economics, natural resources, aging populations, cultural change."

Zhong Jianhua, consul general in Los Angeles of the People's Republic of China, said the institute will "serve as a platform for Chinese and American scholars to conduct academic exchanges in a broader and deeper level."

"We sincerely hope that the institute will play an important role in enhancing China and U.S. cooperation," he said.

Gloria Tai, executive director of the Chinese Culture Center in San Francisco, said she hopes the new institute will expose both the successes and shortcomings of U.S.-China relations. Tai said it could also play a major role in studying how the United States has influenced China's newer generations.

Source: Xinhua