Remarks by Secretary Elaine Chao and Honoree Ming Hsieh: 2021 NCUSCR Gala Dinner

So many thanks to Secretary Chao for such a very kind and very generous introduction. Dear esteemed guests, Ambassador Qin Gang, and the Ambassador Congress, Secretary Jack Lew, and Governor Gary Locke, and all the colleagues and friends at the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, to all the sponsors and friends, thank you for joining us tonight. I'm very humbled and honored to be here today to receive this award, and would like to thank the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations for their recognition and support. I want to also thank Dr. Kissinger for his heartwarming messages. As an immigrant and as a colleague, I was born in Shenyang, a northwestern industrial city in China. My father was a research scientist, and my mother was a high school literature teacher. I had a very happy and cheerful childhood until the beginning of the Cultural Revolution in 1966. Like most intellectuals during the Cultural Revolution, our family was sent to a remote village to do farm work in Panjin County, Liaoning Province, for so-called re-education. In 1970, in the village, there was no paved road, no electricity, no fresh water, and even worse, there was no school. Effectively, my formal education ended before I started middle school. Instead, I had to do heavy manual labor in the fields, pulling weeds, plowing fields, shoveling manure from sunrise to sunset in a tough environment. However, I was lucky since my parents were both educators. They ensured I was getting an education from whatever resources they had. During the off-season, my father created handwritten textbooks and taught me physics, mathematics, and electronics in an applied manner. I became his assistant in putting up wires, cutting poles, and setting up transformers. Through his ingenuity, we successfully brought electricity into our village. My father inspired my interest in engineering, science, and more importantly, my drive for community service through solving problems. I dreamed that one day I could study in university and become an electrical engineer like my father. But as a farmer in a rural village, all that seemed like a very remote fantasy. I had a vivid memory on a special day in 1971. I was working in the field and heard an announcement from a loudspeaker that Dr. Kissinger made a historical trip to Beijing and arranged President Nixon's first visit to China. I didn't know how that visit could impact my personal life during that time, but I sensed something very important: change will be happening in China. I wish Dr. Kissinger's tonight's video could be delivered in advance 50 years ago, which would be a powerful recommendation for my reference for college admissions. So that trip began the normalization of China and U.S. relationships and accelerated China's reform, with the subsequent establishment of the national college entrance exam system in China. I became one of the first group of students to enter university since the Cultural Revolution, so we call that now the class of 1977. Three years later, I was able to transfer to the renowned University of Southern California and begin my American dream. I was very grateful that the stable and collaborative U.S.-China relations allowed me to change from a field farmer to a member of the National Academy of Engineering and Science. I am a beneficiary of these relationships. To prepare for tonight's gala, I had a talk with Dr. Kissinger. I told him about this story, and he was very calm and did not answer immediately. And he told me, 'I know many farmers in the 70s.' So I paused a little bit and started to count: the current Foreign Minister Wang Yi was a farmer, the West Pioneer Liu He was a farmer, Premier Li Keqiang was a farmer, and President Xi Jinping was also a farmer. To extend more, President Jimmy Carter was also a farmer. But there is a fundamental difference: the definition of a farmer in China—you had to really work. So yes, since the ice-breaking bilateral leadership in 1971, China and the U.S. have worked together and brought tangible benefits not only to myself but to hundreds of millions of people in both countries and the world through globalization. I'm incredibly grateful for the opportunity and success that my immigration from China to the U.S. has afforded me. But I will never forget my origin and remain grateful to China for instilling my science and engineering enlightenment. To me, the best way to honor and give back to the country that nurtured me and also the country that provided me with the opportunity to strive is through supporting education and the preservation of heritage. I'm very much looking forward to continuing to work with the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations to achieve our missions. I would also like at this time, using this opportunity, to thank Secretary Chao again. She has dedicated her life to public service and also has generously mentored me for many years and introduced me to this committee and to the Asia Society and also to the Committee of 100. And today we also have, as you mentioned, Governor Gary Locke, who is the Committee of 100's current chairman. I don't know where our chairman is. So for all these organizations I'm involved with, it's all in one common goal: promoting open dialogue between the two countries with the goal of enhancing mutual understanding and promoting stable, constructive relationships between our two countries. So after this gala, we have a lot of work to do. So many thanks, this is a great honor, and many thanks for all your support tonight. Thank you very much.