Pan Qingzhong: the caretaker for future global leader

Life was uneventful until 2004, when Pan was head-hunted by friends in China for a job at his alma mater. Since his return, he has been a constant advocate for more international cooperation and cross-cultural exchanges between China and the rest of the world. With these goals in mind, he has been heavily involved in the Schwarzman Scholars Program and has participated in every stage of its development.

Pan gave me a tour of Schwarzman College, where he is the executive dean. It is a residential compound tucked away in a corner of the Tsinghua campus next to the Summer Palace in northwestern Beijing. A hybrid of eastern and western architectural styles, it’s unlike any college dorm I’d seen before. Comfort and convenience seem to have been made a priority for the school’s potential future leaders. Isn’t there a risk, I asked Pan, that the carefully picked few who are admitted to the college will be cocooned off from local students? He assured me that the courses taught by the college are open to domestic students. Since 2016, when the first batch of 116 students was recruited, 40 percent have come from the United States, 20 percent from China, and the remainder from other parts of the world. This ratio reflects a compromise between the major sponsors of the college, the American financier Stephen A. Schwarzman and Tsinghua. The goal of the former is to train the future leaders of the world’s two largest economies, while the latter has the broader goal of providing training to people around the world who would play a leading role in building their country’s relationship with China.

Pan Qingzhong, Executive Dean of Schwarzman College of Tsinghua University, takes an interview from China Plus. [Photo: China Plus]

No one disputes that the relationship between China and the United States is the most important bilateral relationship in the world. But how much do world leaders know about China? And how much of that is based on first-hand experience? The time is ripe for a platform that allows future leaders to come and feel the pulse of China for themselves. Established politicians, professors, industry leaders, and people chosen especially for their eye for talent are invited to interview and recruit students and teach classes. In this task, they’re helped by people outside the school. Pan told me with some pride that one of these outsiders was a former CIA agent – an unconventional choice of academic recruiter, but someone who I imagine would have a unique eye for picking people with a capacity to lead and influence others.

The photo taken on August 21, 2018 shows a glimpse of the building of the Schwarzman Scholars Program, Tsinghua University in Beijing. [Photo: China Plus]

Well past the age threshold of 28, I can only experience life at the college through my brief visit. The place belongs to the ambitious young people who chose the college over the leadership courses offered by many of the top universities. Once their year there has finished, they become part of a strong alumni network that is always available to help them to continue to deepen their understanding of China. This ongoing contact is important, Pan explained, given that they’re only at the college for a year.

In the early years of his career, Pan's life followed the tides of China's reform and opening up. Now, later in life, he is steering his own boat through those tides, and bringing new generations of scholars and leaders along with him.