UW sees opportunity in China

The University of Washington will open an office in China, probably this fall, school officials have decided.

Plans for the office to provide a liaison with the Chinese government and Chinese universities and to serve Washington students studying in China were announced Wednesday during a campus visit by Chinese Ambassador Zhou Wenzhong.

In a related move Wednesday, Hank T. Wang, a former Chinese military official who now works for Garvey Schubert Barer, a law firm based in Portland with offices in Beijing, Seattle, New York and Washington, D.C., was named as the university’s first special adviser on China and Asia.

“He will be on the ground to find out about opportunities that are harder to hear about here than in China,” said David Bachman, a UW professor of international studies who specializes in China.

School President Mark Emmert originally sought to open an office for the school in Shanghai, but the location was shifted to Beijing.

Many European and U.S. universities have offices and centers in China, partly because it can be difficult for Chinese students to get visas for study abroad.

“China remains the most prominent international partner for many of our faculty and their programs,” Emmert said. “As in so many other places, continuous personal contacts are vital to doing business with the government, educational institutions and businesses of China.”

Private contributions are expected to support the office, which will start with two to three staff members and cost several hundreds of thousands of dollars each year, said Susan Jeffords, vice provost for global affairs.

Last year the university declined an invitation from a Chinese delegation to build a 10,000-student campus in Nanjing, but Emmert said school officials have boosted their efforts to build relations with the Chinese government, especially the education and health ministries.

Some Chinese health officials have expressed interest in working with faculty from the university’s new global health department on prevention of epidemics, Emmert said.

Last year the university president spent 10 days in China after a meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao in Seattle.

Washington had more than 120 students studying in China during 2005-06, and Emmert said he hoped the new office could be expanded to include classrooms for students studying abroad.

“When we talked to local business leaders, they were keenly interested in having our students and our alumni be prepared in an international setting, especially in China,” Emmert said. “A UW young grad will most likely have Chinese colleagues regardless of field.”