President Hu Jintao’s Visit To Peking University, May 2008

China’s President Hu Jintao visited the Peking University-Yale University Joint Undergraduate Program May, 2008, in honor of Peking University’s 110th anniversary. President Hu was accompanied by Peking University (PKU) President Xu and other national, municipal and university leaders. This is President Hu's first visit to PKU after he became president of China. The PKU-Yale Joint Undergraduate Program was the only one of its kind that the president visited. The PKU-Yale Joint Undergraduate Program was chosen because of President Hu’s previous visit to Yale and because of China’s positive and long-standing connections with Yale.

President Hu’s first stop on his visit to the Program was to dorm room number 106, the residence of Austin Miller, Trumbull ’10 and Zhang Yin, Yuanpei ’10. President Hu, Austin, and Zhang Yin spoke before entering the dorm’s common room to address the entire program, including six Yale students, four Yuanpei (PKU honor’s college and the college from whence Program participants are chosen) students, Yale professors Deborah Davis and Michael Friedmann, and Yale Resident Director Ningping Yu. Deborah Davis, Professor of sociology, shook hands with the President. Yale students were interviewed by CCTV reporters and Diana Wang, Pierson ‘10 was featured on television broadcasts because of her fluency in Chinese.

Footage from CCTV.

Deborah Davis, Professor of Sociology, shakes hands with President Hu Jintao.