“Our respective visits to Chapel Hill and Beijing will help solidify a strategic partnership in China that will be mutually beneficial for the university and North Carolina in the future.”

Chancellor James Moeser

Partnerships in China are hot among U.S. universities. Schools are looking to expand their reach, collaborate on research, broaden their students' horizons and recruit top Chinese scholars. In some cases, they want to cash in on an enormous market for education in the most populous nation on the planet.

Teacher Kelly Kokiko called fifth-graders to the front of her classroom at Tommy's Road Elementary School. Each bore a sign indicating a different type of animal. ...The lessons, developed at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, were introduced at the school three years ago when many of the students were in third grade, said Carolyn Byers, a counselor at Tommy's Road.

In academics as in business, eyes are turning to China. UNC is leading the way, with Chancellor James Moeser heading up a delegation.

At the conference, which UNC is hosting with Peking University, researchers will propose ideas for Chinese health-care reform. UNC's engagement with China and its universities has been growing in recent years, but Moeser said the visit is a way to take the collaboration "to a new level."

Academic interchange and economic intercourse between countries is the most important way of having peaceful relationships. As China was once America's principal rival in the world, now China can become America's collaborator.

The conference is the latest in a growing series of collaborations between UNC and Chinese partners. Mr. Moeser listed China as one of the three most important countries, along with Britain and India, in the globalization campaign of UNC, the first state university in the US, citing the huge population and booming economy.

The Dec. 11-12 conference, "Harmonious Development and Reaching Health for All," will bring together UNC and Peking scholars, government officials and representatives of the private sector to address Chinese health care reform issues.