(Chinese version)

　　Since the Ministry of Education issued the Regulations for Chinese-Foreign Education Cooperation in 2003, there are ten Chinese-foreign partnered universities with independent legal person in the country to date.

　　Five out of these ten universities are located in the Zhejiang-Jiangsu-Shanghai region, forming almost a straight line on the map, from the North to the South.

　　Duke Kunshan University is located at the very north end of this line, co-founded by Duke University, Wuhan University and the government of Kunshan. Unlike other Chinese-foreign cooperated universities, it’s the only university that’s set up in a county. This university carries a sort of wish from the city, a certain longing. Or we can say that it’s a situation where a developing country wanting so badly to apply the most developed country’s experience.

　　There is more than just the pacific that lies between the gap of China and the U.S, an old country with thousand years of history and burden that seeks growth and power in the new era, and a young country that has been a world leader in the past five decades. The gap is made by history, time and culture.

　　So what changes can a Chinese-foreign university bring to a city? What impact will America’s higher education logic will have on China?

　　Changes in Kunshan

　　Kunshan is located at a very convenient location, with Suzhou in its west, Shanghai in its East, Changshu and Taicang in the north, facing Zhejiang Province in the south.

　　Companies from Taiwan started to flood into the mainland after the reform and opening up policy was launched, providing with the county the very first opportunity of development in contemporary China.

　　In the very beginning, most companies from Taiwan would choose to set up factories in the Pearl River Delta region due to the cheap labor and the export advantage presented by the proximity to Hong Kong as they targeted the international market. However, as the mainland’s economy and average income climbed up, these Taiwanese companies realized that the mainland also carried immense market potential and prospect.

　　In 1992, Taiwan bike maker GIANT put its investment in Kunshan. In fact, GIANT originally planned to set the factory in Shanghai, but the negotiation with Shanghai had been slow and difficult, which brought down GIANT’s passion. Meanwhile, Jiangsu province and Kunshan’s local government actively sought cooperation with the bike maker. Eventually, GIANT decided to base in Kunshan.

　　GIANT’s sales has been rising fast in mainland

　　Statistics show that since the factory started official production in April 1994, GIANT’s bike sales then hit 154,000, with a sales volume of ￥70 million. And 46,000 of these bikes were sold domestically, bringing the company ￥55 million. Fast forward to 2001, GIANT’s sales reached 2.26 million, cashing in ￥1.223 billion, with a domestic sales of 960,000 that cashed in ￥350 billion.

　　In 2002, Kunshan’s GDP hit ￥31.434 billion and its GDP per capita grew to ￥52,078, making the county the leading force in the province. In that year, there were 638 industrial companies in Kunshan, 207 of which were companies from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, accounting one third of the total amount. Such proportion was of the highest within the province, far more greater than Suzhou, which was the second leading city(15.2%).

　　In 2005, Kunshan transferred 26 labor-intensive companies that were valued at ￥300 million in total out and attracted high tech companies with an annual production of ￥3 billion to its region.

　　At the same time, Taiwan’s First International Computer shut down its last production line in Taiwan.

　　In 2005, Kunshan manufactured 15.66 million laptops and 7.31 digital cameras. During that period, one in third of laptops in the world were manufactured in this region that’s only 900 square kilometers. With its great advantages, Kunshan made it the county with the largest export volume in Jiangsu province in that year. Cao Xinping, the municipal party secretary of Kunshan once stated that Taiwanese companies contributed over 90% of the import and export volume in Kunshan.

　　However, the peak time ended when the financial crisis struck in 2008.

　　For the very first time since 2005 the investment projects of overseas companies started falling, declining from 7,126 to 4,219 in 2009. During 2008 and 2009, the growth of the actual investment of overseas companies was only 0.8%. Meanwhile, the number of foreign invested companies had been dropping a bit for three consecutive years since 2007.

　　Kunshan was also affected by the greater environment. In 2009, Kunshan’s actual foreign investment only grew by 3.8% and its export volume only had a growth of 5.4%. From 2009 to 2011, the production volume of laptops grew by 30.8%, 17% and 5% respectively. From 2012 to 2013, due to statistical caliber changes, computers replaced laptops, which resulted in a 4.8% negative growth.