In a recent interview with Xinhua, Robert L. Daly, the newly-appointed US co-director of the center, said that the Hopkins-Nanjing Center is the longest established China-US academic research center featured by wide-range of cooperation and top quality research work.

The center, aiming at training qualified people who are familiar with both the cultures, has played an important role in the bilateral cultural exchanges, Daly said.

The Nanjing University and the Johns Hopkins University of the United States jointly set up the center in 1986 to train professionals, university teachers and researchers in Sino-US affairs. Each year, outstanding researchers are chosen from the two countries to work at the research institute, according to Daly.

So far the center has trained more than 1,000 people who work in diplomatic departments, multi-national corporations and scientific research institutes in either China or the United States.

Last year, the center established a research institute of international affairs which focuses on the study of international relations, Sino-US relations, family structures and other social issues, consumption habits, labor force movements, environmental protection policies, environmental sanitation and trade.

Daly said that as the countries have differing cultural backgrounds and values, it is necessary to employ wise and open-minded people so as to avoid the possible misunderstandings along with the increasing bilateral exchanges in various fields.

(Xinhua News Agency November 13, 2001)