Ambassador Huntsman at Tsinghua University, Mar 18, 2010

Ambassador Huntsman:  (Speaking in Mandarin.)  Professor Sun, thank you for that very kind invitation originally to be with your students.  I am truly honored to be here today. 

(Speaking in Mandarin.)

It is a great pleasure to be able to speak with you here today, and in particular to be able to celebrate – I know a little bit in advance – Tsinghua’s 100th anniversary.  The United States has a very special connection to this university that I want to mention for just a moment.  When Teddy Roosevelt, who is one of my very favorite presidents, when he served as President, the United States government established a scholarship program for Chinese students with funds from the indemnity imposed on the Qing Dynasty for supporting the Boxer Rebellion.  The “American Indemnity College” (Meiguo Peikuan Xuexiao), was founded in 1911 through this program, and helped some of China’s top students prepare for study in the United States.

Among the many prominent Chinese who benefited from this scholarship were the philosopher Hu Shih, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Chen Ning Yang, the mathematician Kai Lai Chung, and the astronautical engineer Qian Xuesen, who later founded China’s rocket program.  So successful was this scholarship program, in fact, that the Fulbright Scholarship – the premier American scholarship program today – was modeled after it.  And as you know, in 1928, the American Indemnity College became Tsinghua University.  We are pleased to be so intimately associated with your founding and evolution.  And we celebrate with you 100 years of friendship, and Tsinghua’s proud history as one of China’s and the world’s top academic institutions.  

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