EXCHANGE OF IDEAS KEY BENEFIT OF REFORM

Cheng Li, the first Chinese-American to lead the Brookings Institution's John L. Thornton China Center, arrived in the United States in 1985 to pursue a master's degree in Asian studies at the University of California, Berkeley.

"I might be one of the earliest Chinese students who came to the US to study," said Li, who grew up on Yan'an Road in Shanghai's Jing'an district. "Actually I came as a self-sponsored overseas student, which was very unusual in China at that time. And I was told in the mid-1980s that about a quarter of the self-sponsored students studying aboard were from my district."

After arriving in the US, Li said, "What I first noticed was the highway - in 1985, there were no highways in China."