China-US academic exchange flourishes over 35 years(2)

Hawke, 25 years old at the time, was a major in political science at Stanford University.

"Although I studied Chinese politics, I had never dreamed of studying in China one day," Hawke said when recalling his experience.

Nevertheless, he has since made a life for himself in China, spending 33 of the past 35 years in his adopted country, marrying a Chinese woman and having two Chinese-American kids.

In the early 1980s, Hawke acted as a consultant to help US firms including the Great Wall Hotel and the Beijing Jeep Corporation secure some of the earliest big deals in China.

He now works as Greater China director of Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

"Not many Americans live such an interesting life as I do," he said, boasting of having witnessed the great social changes and economic growth in China over the decades.

Since 1978/1979, China-US academic exchange has become a steady and unstoppable trend.

According to the Institute of International Education, the number of Chinese students in the United States rose to 1,000 in 1980, while in the 2012/13 academic year, 235,597 Chinese studied there.

Of this large and growing figure, 68 have become CAE fellows and 289 fellows of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Currently, China is the leading place of origin for students going to the United States while the United States is the second-biggest sender of students to China.

"As time has gone by, scholarly exchange between China and the United States has evolved from a thin string into a broad bridge connecting the people of the two countries," said Cen Jianjun, director general of the Chinese education ministry's department of international cooperation and exchanges.

It is now a major engine for China-US friendship, Cen added.