A major initiative to advance greater understanding between scholars and officials in the United States and China, has been announced by the Kennedy School of Government.

The $7 million gift from Nina Kung, chairwoman of the Chinachem Group, Hong Kong's largest privately owned real estate company, will create a highly competitive visiting scholars program, modeled in part after the Rhodes and Marshall Scholars programs, to bring outstanding students from China to study public policy at the Kennedy School. The students in this program will be known as Nina Kung Scholars. The gift will also foster collaboration between the Chinese National School of Public Administration and the Kennedy School; conferences, seminars, and events in the School's ARCO Forum of Public Affairs; and curriculum development about U.S.-China policy.

The $7 million gift augments the Nina Kung initiative, announced last spring with a $1 million contribution. Using the proceeds from that gift, the Kennedy School recently concluded an unprecedented executive program for 20 senior Chinese military officers in Cambridge. The program was the first-ever extended stay at an American university by such a large group of Chinese military officers, including representatives from the Ministry of Defense, the General Staff, and military districts throughout China. They attended seminars for two weeks with Harvard faculty and international security scholars and policymakers dealing with subjects including U.S.-China relations, geopolitics and military trends in Asia, and nuclear proliferation.

"I am very grateful to Nina Kung for providing such generous funding. This affords us to take a lead in what is probably the most important international issue facing this country as we move toward the 21st century," said Dean Joseph S. Nye Jr. "Its wide range of programs will allow us to define more common ground and face some of the crucial differences between our two cultures and political systems."

The initiative will officially begin later this year with a two-day symposium at the Kennedy School for top-level political and business figures from the U.S. and China. The program will cover such topics as politics and public policy in East Asia, the environmental challenges caused by economic growth, and the proliferation of nuclear and biological weapons.

"I am Chinese, born in Shanghai, but have lived in Hong Kong most of my life," said Nina Kung. "I know the United States and lived in New York as a young woman, so to some extent I can appreciate the differing views that both countries have toward both history and contemporary problems. I am delighted to work with the Kennedy School to improve understanding and cooperation between the United States and China."

The initiative was put together by Nina Kung and Robert Blackwill, former special assistant to President George Bush for National Security Affairs. Blackwill is faculty chair of the Nina Kung initiative. They visited the PeopleÕs Republic of China together in October 1996 and received the enthusiastic support of the Chinese government and the Chinese military leadership for this project.

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.