Invited by the CPAFFC, John J. DeGioia, president of Georgetown University of the U. S., and his party visited Gansu, Jiangxi and Hubei provinces and Beijing from March 4 to 9. Liu Yandong, state councillor; Li Yuanchao, head of the Organization Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CCCPC); Ye Xiaowen, director of the State Administration of Religious Affairs; Li Jingtian, executive vice president of the Party School of the CCCPC; Sun Gang, deputy governor of Jiangxi; and Zhao Bin, deputy governor of Hubei, met with the delegation.

Enhancing exchanges and cooperation in education and cadres training with Georgetown University. State Councillor Liu Yandong praised Mr. DeGioia for his efforts since he was president of Georgetown University in actively promoting Sino-US friendly relations, educational exchanges and personnel training. She said, education and training of qualified personnel are an important foundation for the realization of China’s modernization, and the U.S. has a lot of advanced experience in education that China can draw on. Over the 30 years of reform and opening-up, about 350,000 Chinese have gone to study in the U.S. In 2007, there were more than 76,000 Chinese students in the U.S. and 19,000 American students in China. In future, the two countries should continue to increase educational exchanges. The state councillor expressed the hope that Georgetown University would deepen its cooperation with China in education and personnel training.
Li Yuanchao affirmed Georgetown University’s efforts to cooperate with China in training cadres in recent years. He said, on the one hand, China has been effectively using the existing cadres training system, and on the other hand, it is reforming the system to make it better fit in with the modern society. The reform of the training system consists of two aspects: first, to change the training system with cadre students in Party Schools as the main body into a system combining cooperation with other universities; second, to send cadres to study abroad, and the U.S. is an important place of choice. Georgetown University has already established good cooperation relations with the Organization Department of the CCCPC, the Party School of the CCCPC and the CPAFFC in cadres training, and the training course for Chinese young cadres conducted in cooperation with the CPAFFC last January was a success. He hoped that the course would be carried on as a long term programme and that Georgetown University would continue to contribute to the training of Chinese cadres.
President DeGioia said, Georgetown University aims to provide more opportunities for Chinese students to study in the U.S. and American students to study in China. It will also expand and improve cadres training programmes to train cadres for China and further widen and deepen cooperation with China in education and personnel training as well as in other fields.
Continuing to improve the Chinese Young Cadres Training Programme in the U.S. In order to strengthen China’s cadres training, after a year’s preparation, the CPAFFC and Georgetown University launched last January a 5-year programme the training course for CPAFFC young cadres in the U.S. 25 middle-aged and young cadres from the CPAFFC and other 8 friendship associations of provinces, autonomous regions or municipalities went to Georgetown University to participate in a 3-week training course which focused on innovation and public administration, and achieved good results.
Georgetown University paid great attention to this programme. Within 45 days after the conclusion of the training course, President DeGioia led a delegation to China. One of the main purposes of the visit was to interview the participants of the course to find out whether the training has any effect on their work and way of life and gather their suggestions on improving the propramme.
President DeGioia and his party then went to Jiangxi and Hubei and visited the China Executive Leadership Academy, Jinggangshan and the Hubei Hong’an Revolutionary Tradition Education Institute, where they learned more about the demands of Chinese localities for personnel training, with a view to expanding the programme to more participants.
The delegation members said after the visit that they not only examined the actual results of the training course, but also learned more about China’s requirements for cadres training and that they were satisfied with the results achieved.