New | College scholarships set up to foster closer ties between China and Japan
Organisers hope the scheme will help ease the historic tensions between the two nations
An educational foundation based in Hong Kong has set up scholarships for Chinese and Japanese students to help increase their understanding of each other’s countries.
It is also hoped the programme will join other efforts to ease the historic tensions between the two Asian giants.
The Bai Xian Education Foundation plans to offer students about US$25,000 a year to help them study at universities in China, Japan and other Asian countries.
The main backer of the scheme is the businessman Ronald Chao, who was born in Shanghai, but spent part of his education at the University of Tokyo.
“It concerns me to see the abnormal tension between China and Japan for a while,” he said. “Benefiting from a cross-culture education, I’ve been considering doing something to help promote exchanges between China and Japan.”
The Asian future leaders scholarship programme has initially worked with six universities in China and Japan: the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Peking University, Zhejiang University, Hitotsubashi University, Kyoto University and Waseda University. The programme is also hoping to form partnerships with universities in South Korea and Singapore.