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Chinese premier commends US/China collaboration

Premier Wen meets the US delegates at IHEP

Premier Wen meets the US delegates at IHEP

The 29th annual meeting of the US/People's Republic of China Joint Committee on High Energy Physics had an unexpected guest this year. On Nov. 4, the Premier of China, Wen Jiabao, visited the Institute of High Energy Physics in Beijing and met the US delegates. Premier Wen congratulated IHEP on their recently completed upgrade of the Beijing Electron Positron Collider. He also emphasized the importance of collaboration between the two nations.

"Premier Wen voiced appreciation for the strength and longevity of the collaboration,” said Jerry Blazey, a member of the US delegation from the Department of Energy. “He expressed a desire for continued and broadened collaborations and cited the efforts as a leading example of broader Sino-American relations."

The US/PRC Joint Committee on High Energy Physics started in 1979 when Deng Xiaoping, the leader of China from the late seventies to the early nineties, visited the United States to meet with President Jimmy Carter. At this historical meeting, Carter and Xiaoping signed an agreement for cooperation on science and technology.

"It played an extremely important role for high energy physics in China," said Yifang Wang, an associate director at IHEP. "With the help of the US through this channel, China built the Beijing Electron Positron Collider and the Beijing Spectrometer in the 1980s."

Today the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment represents the major collaborative effort between the two nations. Currently under construction in China, Daya Bay will use anti-neutrinos produced by the reactors of the Daya Bay Nuclear Power Plant and the Ling Ao Nuclear Power Plant to measure the last unknown neutrino mixing angle. Commissioning will begin in 2010.

Other current collaborative projects include the Beijing Electron Positron Collider II, the China Spallation Neutron Source and the Shanghai Light Source.

At the recent meeting, the delegations signed the official US-PRC agreement for 2009. The agreement outlines collaborative activities for the next year, which include exchange visits, contributions to ongoing projects, such as the Beijing Spectrometer III, and plans for future work on superconducting radiofrequency technology.

Here's a video that a Chinese television station aired about Premier Wen's visit.