China's dramatic transformation in the past two decades is the most important story of the 20th Century and will rank in overall importance in history with the Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution, Harvard University President Lawrence H. Summers said in a speech May 14 attended by some 1,000 students at Peking University in Beijing.

"No country in Europe, no country in North America, has ever grown nearly as rapidly in a decade as China has grown in the last decade and in the decade before," Summers, 48, said.

China's transformation as will as the phenomenon of globalization reflect a deeper transformation in the world, Lawrence said: "And that is this: knowledge is becoming more central to every aspect of human activity that it ever has been before."

A former Secretary of the Treasury of the United States who became president of Harvard last July, Summers focused his talk on the need all organizations, especially institutions of higher learning, to respond to the transformations that characterize our times.

"I was asked at a gathering earlier in China what advice I would give to someone who was trying to create the best possible university. And I said there was really in the long run only one thing that mattered to having the best possible university. And that was having the most creative, the most intellectually engaged, and the smartest faculty."

The achievements made by Harvard, Summers said, are due to its farsighted education that not only emphasizes popular sciences in great demand, but also pays great attention to the development trend and prospect of a discipline. Harvard's endeavors to be ranked among the best universities of the world include aspects of separation from politics, competition and external scrutiny, ruthless competition for talent, and strong leadership, Summers said.

In the tide of globalization, Summers said universities are confronted with five challenges: 1. Grappling with globalization and spreading excellence 2. maintaining a sense of community and autonomy as knowledge becomes in wider demand 3. maintaining a commitment to areas of knowledge that don't appear instrumentally valuable in the very short run 4. universities must adapt to the changing organization of knowledge 5. universities must adapt to the changing opportunities that the changing world brings.

Summers admonished students of Peking University to know clearly what they are going to do in the future, to know how to do it, and more importantly, to know how to do it better.

Also in attendance were Peking University President Xu Zhihong and Vice-President Min Weifang along with 13 Harvard faculty members -- the largest delegation of Harvard faculty ever to visit China -- who accompanied Summers to attend the Second Conference of the Association of Harvard University Alumni Clubs of Asia.

(Edited and translated by Sara Grimes and Shao Da from sources including 中国青年报 [China Youth Daily], for china.org.cn, May 21, 2002)