Chinese philanthropists hold cross-Pacific anniversary celebration at SCPKU

“The Friends of Beida,” a philanthropic group established in 1996 by Hong Kong entrepreneurs to support the development of Peking University, visited SCPKU on April 16 as part of their 20th anniversary celebration.  The group celebrated 20 years of partnership with Peking University which includes providing Mingde Scholarships to the top two test takers on the college entrance examinations from each province who are admitted to Peking University.  A number of past and current Mingde Scholars joined the celebration at SCPKU.  Lead donor, David Chan and his family, also have been generous supporters of Stanford.  The anniversary celebration truly used SCPKU as a bridge across the Pacific.  Leveraging the teleconferencing facilities at SCPKU and at Stanford, Jean Oi, Lee Shau Kee Director of SCPKU, speaking from Stanford welcomed David Chan and his group who were in the tiered classroom at SCPKU.  Mike McFaul, Director of Stanford's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, and former US Ambassador to Russia, also speaking from Stanford presented “An Analysis of the Upcoming Presidential Election and the Political/Economical Implications to Asia Pacific” and then took questions from the group at SCPKU.  During the highly-interactive session, Michael Chan, an alumnus of Stanford, also announced his family’s generous donation to complete SCPKU's IT facilities, an upgrade that will allow teleconferencing from even more spaces within the center.