The University of Southern California (USC) has announced it will establish the first interdisciplinary research institute to study U.S.-China relations.

USC president Steven B. Sample said in Beijing Tuesday that the unit would be established by the end of this year.

Sample and colleagues on the USC board of trustees are on a week-long tour of China, visiting the prestigious Peking University and Tsinghua University, and looking at expanding cooperation with Chinese institutions.

"China is no doubt a rising economic power," Sample said. "We feel it is necessary to research China and U.S.-China relations, and to answer the questions confronting both of us."

USC Provost C. L. Max Nikias said the research institute on China would be launched at the USC's branch school in Los Angeles, where staff had access to abundant academic resources on economics, politics, international relations, business and mass media.

He said the institute would open to researchers from home and abroad. The program would cover undergraduate and graduate levels as well as subsidiary courses.

"We will recruit for 20 to 30 faculties, including one executive director," he added, declining to give further details.

Sample said the USC carried out more than 50 cooperative programs with Chinese universities and organizations, including a distance education program at Tsinghua University and an MBA course at Shanghai Jiaotong University.

The delegation has also brought a copy of a graduation certificate kept in the USC library for Lei Jieqiong, a former vice-mayor of Beijing who graduated from USC as master of sociology in 1931. Sample will visit Lei and present her with the replica of the historic graduation certificate.

The delegation will also visit Shanghai and Hong Kong.

Editor: Wing