Wanxiang America has signed a "100K" fellows program with Baucus Institute of the University of Montana in an effort to deepen the interaction and cooperation between China and the United States in the fields of education, science and technology, and sports.
The program was signed on the sidelines of China General Chamber of Commerce-U.S.A. Chicago (CGCC Chicago) 2019 gala held in downtown Chicago on Tuesday.
Under the program, the first batch of 24 American students from Baucus Institute will go to China for study in the summer of 2020.
The exchange of law students of University of Montana with China will further the ties with China, said Max Baucus, former U.S. ambassador to China. The focus of study will be policy research on climate changes.
Baucus Institute, named after the former U.S. ambassador to China, is engaged in problem solving and productive policy making, as well as training business and government leaders.
Privately-owned Wanxiang Group based in east China's Zhejiang Province, the parent company of Wanxiang America, started its support for the "100,000 Strong" Initiative in March 2011, when then Wanxiang Group Chairman Lu Guanqiu and the Mayor of Chicago Richard Daley signed a project to kick off Wanxiang's participation in the initiative.
Since then, Wanxiang Group has sponsored students from U.S. universities and high schools to study in China, and received 58 exchange study groups from the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, University of Illinois and Chicago public schools. A total of 1,409 teachers and students from the United States have gone to China to learn Chinese culture and clean energy.
The "100,000 Strong" Initiative was launched by former U.S. President Obama in 2009. In 2013, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced the establishment of the 100,000 Strong Foundation, an independent nonprofit institute dedicated to deepening ties between the future leaders of the United States and China.
