The 1990 Institute was founded by a group of prominent academic, business, and community leaders with a deep interest in good U.S.-China relations. We began as an economic and social research think tank aimed at assisting China in its period of modernization. We hosted numerous scholar conferences and joint research projects with the Federal Reserve Bank, among other groups.  We also funded Chinese scholars that were in the States at that time to collaborate with U.S. experts in writing a number of reports and issue papers on monetary and social reforms.  In 1994, our U.S.-China collaborative research report called China Economic Reform, was presented to President Jiang Zemin at a large convention and was well-received. It later became a textbook in Stanford’s economics courses.

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In our second decade, we shifted our focus to doing projects in China by collaborating with the All China Women’s Federation (ACWF).  Our major programs include the Spring Bud Girls Education program where 1000 girls from very poor rural families were given an all expenses paid scholarship to attend, starting from the 3rd grade until college graduation, as long as they are able. (Over 175 girls have graduated from college.)  Our microfinance program helped a rural microfinance operation (Pucheng Women’s Sustainable Developed Association) to go from negative cash flow to fully sustainable. This organization was recognized by the Chinese Government as a model microfinance operation. We also partnered with the China National Children’s Center to conduct a number of U.S.-China children’s exchange programs, starting with a Children’s Art on the Environment  competition, where over 1 million children all over China participated.