>From: LIU Liming liulim@ust.hk >Date: Thu, 10 Feb 2000 09:35:26 +0800 (HKT) >Subject: Our views on HUST's future/long message, thanks for your patience Dear Friends, This email is to ask your views on the plan that Hubei province will only support the building of one major university and as a consequence that HUST will be forced to merge with Wuhan U (some details can be found in the attached messages). A number of us in Hong Kong and Shenzhen are opposed to this plan. Basically, we believe the plan is bad, in the long term, to HUST alumni, the development of higher education and high tech industries in Hubei, the development of higher education in China as a whole, and members of HUST and Wuhan U. We plan to express our opinions in a letter to the central govermnet, the provincial government, HUST, Shenzhen government (for the possibility of moving HUST to Shenzhen), and some news media. The letter will be written primarily in name of HUST overseas alumni. I would like to get your supports and through you to get supports of more HUST alumni in North America. I think this is a good issue to reactivate the HUST alumni association in US and Canada. Please voice your views through email to my address (liulim@ust.hk). If you support this action (send the letter), please provide your full name and affiliation (it will be good to also provide you HUST class) to me in the email. Once the letter is drafted, I will send you a copy for approval (general ideas are stated in the next forwarded message. We have to act very fast). We need to have the letter delivered on or before 22 Feb. Yang Qing, can you find Wang Lin's email (he should be at Harvard). There are many HUST alumni in Boston area, can you contact some? Thanks. Thank you. Liming >Date: Wed, 9 Feb 2000 19:07:18 +0800 >From: Forrest Zhong fzhong@transpac-capital.com >To: 'LIU Liming' liulim@ust.hk, 'Albert Ye' sztsaint@public.szptt.net.cn, > fzhong@ctimail.com, hejunchen@sohu.com >Subject: RE: vice-president Zhou has said a suggestion Dear All, HE Junchen, Huang Shaoming (BOC group), Wang Xianyun and myself had a lunch together today and we had a brief but a good section about HUST. In general we all agreed that it would be a good tactics to write a petition letter, under the name of HUST overseas alumni, to the central government about HUST's case in particular and China's higher education in general, and cc to all relevant parties including Hubei provincial, Shenzhen municipal and HUST. It was decided that we all should feedback our opinions on the issue to HE Junchen in order for him to write up and submit the letter to the relevant authorities ASAP. The main points of the letter would be as follows: 1. Fully support national higher education reform in order to better serve China's new economy. Full understanding and support for national policy to consolidate higher education institutions, with the aim to better utilize the limited resources and create world-class unversities. 2. A greal deal has been achieved in China's higher education since the founding of the People's Republic. HUST is just one of the show windows of higher education achievements of the People's republic. Some hard data about HUST's profile and its sinificant meanings (both political and economic)to the nation, comparing with those old "national" Universities. 4. Good university is not necessary an old university, and vice versa. HUST is a new type research university with strength in applied science & technology. The importance of such new type university to hi-tech and knowledge-based economy can never be over-stated. Examples of MIT, Caltech, Standford, etc., which are locomotives for the US sustainable economic development. Even those old and comprehensive universities such as Oxford, Cambridge, Princeton, etc. are reforming themselves trying to be more relevant to the real economy/technology. 5. If Hubei province does not have sufficient willingness/resources to support HUST, HUST would have no choice but to support itself by moving to other more economically developed region, such as Shenzhen. Such movement is fully in line with central governments' policy for higher education to utilize market resources rather than rely on central government's supports. Shenzhen desperately needs a leading university of HUST's quality for sustainable economic development. HUST has the determination / ability to become China's Standford in supporting Shenzhen's rally of becoming China's Sillicon Valley. Such a scheme is a win-win soluton to each parties involved, either the nation, Hubei/Wuhan, Shenzhen and HUST. It also has political significance for the nation to push forward higher education reform to be more market-oriented and better serve nation's economic development. Pls add your comments. Junchen: pls gather more information and write up. Liming: pls circulate the message among HUST alumni to collect enough signatures, in particular from those prominent alumni overseas. We should act quickly before it is too late. Best Regards, Zhong Xiaolin >From: LIU Liming [mailto:liulim@ust.hk] >Sent: Wednesday, February 09, 2000 5:41 PM >To: Albert Ye; fzhong@ctimail.com; johnsonhe@china.com >Subject: Re: vice-president Zhou has said a suggestion Dear All, Happy New Year! I hope you still had a good holiday regardless of what is happening at HUST. I spoke with a Vice Dean of the mechanical engineering school two days ago about HUST. It seems the situation is more sutle than what I heard from you guys earlier. According to what is known to most at HUST, Minister Chen Zhili told Hubei that the central government prefers Hubei to build one key school. This triggered the change from two schools to one school in the provincial government's work report to the people's congress (the draft was still for two schools). However, Chen also told the province that it is also fine if Hubei wants to have two schools, as long as they can match the contributions from the central goverment. So, it seems that the key now is to convince the provincial government that it is better to the province to have two key universities. At least we will get more money from the central government. Also this will put Hubei on par with Beijin and Shanghai to have two key universities. It will be extremely important for Hubei's competitive advantage in the Knowledge age. The second the point is to raise the possibility of moving to SHenzhen. This requires that HUST refuse any merge plan with Wuhan U. Junchen and I discusssed on the phone and decide to write a letter to the provincial government. It will be signed by some oversea scholars of Hubei origin. At the same time, we should also discuss how the Shenzhen alumni and us can do something. Best. Liming >From: "Dr Y S Gao, ME, HKUST, Tel: 852-2358-8649" meygao@ust.hk >To: "LIU Liming" liulim@ust.hk, jiang@cse.unl.edu, hong@cse.unl.edu, >Subject: Re: Our views on HUST's future/long message >Date: Thu, 10 Feb 2000 10:31:05 +0800 Liming, It is not good to start the major action (the merger) if just for the single reason of limited resources. As the country develops, there will be more money available for high education. If Shenzhen can provide 5-15b, the move might be feasible. Please go ahead and you have my support. Please keep us informed. Yongsheng