FIVE YEARS ON

IMPACT OF XI’S VISIT

like a lab. We need to carry out our technologies, products and services to the related sectors and areas in a faster speed and solve more real problems,” Xiao said.

“Besides, we are also expanding our footprints abroad, such as to help Africa to provide internet security services. Last year, we also launched our office in Silicon Valley.”

Meanwhile, Xi also visited the innovation building in Harbin. With the support of the research and development strength of Harbin Institute of Technology, the building provides incubators for small and medium-size enterprises, and it shows the innovative achievements of the city.

“Harbin Institute of Technology was the first university in China to establish a major in composite materials. The first composite material factory in China was also built in Harbin,” said Wang Rongguo, a professor at the School of Materials Science and Engineering at the university.

“We also made the first propeller that is made of composite materials in China. We should speed up the industrial transformation of our research achievements and apply them to more sectors,” he said.

Endowed chair keeps spark of wisdom lit

In her remarks at Columbia University on Tuesday, Vice-Premier Liu Yandong noted a bit of history.

At the university’s department of East Asian Studies, there is a teaching chair for special studies in Chinese culture and Han teachings called the Dean Lung Professorship. It was established and funded by Horace Walpole Carpentier in 1901 to commemorate Dean Lung, his illiterate but noble Chinese servant.

Carpentier (1824-1918) was the first mayor of Oakland, California. In 1888, he returned to his hometown of New York City and was elected to the board of trustees of Columbia University.

In California, he hired Dean Lung as a servant, who went with him to New York. When Dean Lung retired, he wanted to use his savings to build a department of Chinese culture and Han studies, hoping to share the culture of his home country.

Carpentier, deeply moved, gave donations to the project in honor of his friend and employee for the endowment of Chinese studies at the university, founding the department of East Asian languages and cultures.

Liu expressed hope that everyone attending would illuminate the road of Sino-US relations by lighting the spark of wisdom.

“I believe with the joint efforts by all of you, SinoUS relations will have a brighter future,” she said.