Kennedy School Establishes Nina Kung Initiative Fund

Program to examine the growing influence of China in world affairs

A $1 million gift from Nina Kung of Hong Kong is enabling the Kennedy School of Government to significantly increase faculty research, teaching, and outreach concerning China's growing prominence in international affairs.

The Nina Kung Initiative Fund will underwrite scholarship, curriculum development, student fellowships, and executive training that considers China's impact on international security, economics, and policy issues.

"That China will command increasing attention from the rest of the world in the coming years is unquestioned," said Kennedy School Dean Joseph S. Nye. "How we relate to China is one of the most important foreign policy questions facing the United States today. We are especially grateful to Nina Kung for enabling us to further study China's growing influence and economic power."

Nye said that he is forming an advisory committee of senior Harvard faculty to develop and review specific programmatic efforts to be underwritten by the flexible Nina Kung Initiative Fund.

Kung is chairlady of the Chinachem Corp., which is based in Hong Kong. Established in 1920 in Shanghai, Chinachem is one of China's largest importer of plastics, petrochemicals, rubber, and animal feed.

Throughout her career, Kung has promoted economic development in China through education, and by supporting entrepreneurial and management training programs. She has supported research and development of agricultural technology and created the Ruxin Agricultural Award to recognize technological achievements in agriculture. She holds an appointment as an advisory professor of the Economics Institute at Beijing University, and she serves on the boards of directors of the University of International Business and Economics and the Foreign Affairs College.