China has authorized Yale University to trade
domestic stocks and bonds, making it the first foreign university to be granted
access to the country's securities market.
The approval, announced this week in the Shanghai Daily and confirmed
Wednesday by the university, allows Yale's endowment investors to tap one of the
world's fastest growing economies.
It also underscores the increasingly tight-knit relationship between China
and the prestigious American university, a relationship marked by Chinese
President Hu Jintao's scheduled visit to the school Friday.
China allows foreign investors to buy a limited number of stocks and bonds,
called B-shares, that are quoted in U.S. and Hong Kong dollars. The much larger
domestic stock exchange, which trades stocks known as A-shares, is restricted to
Chinese investors and a select group of approved foreign institutions.
Yale's $15 billion (euro12.24 billion) endowment is one of the world's
largest and has more than tripled in value in the past decade.
Institutions that win approval to buy A-shares are limited in how much they
can invest and the size of Yale's stake was not immediately released.
This week, Hu said the Chinese economy grew 10.2 percent in the first three
months of the year compared with the same quarter last year, well above previous
estimates. The nation's economy has grown at an annual pace of about 10 percent
for the past three years.
That rapid expansion hasn't translated to a booming stock exchange and China
has been trying to breathe life into its markets, which have been among Asia's
worst performers in recent years.
The government has slowly allowed foreign investors, hoping they will demand
greater discipline and transparency from listed companies, which are largely
state-owned.
Hu had dinner Tuesday at the home of Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates and
planned to tour a Boeing commercial jet plant Wednesday. He is scheduled to meet
with President George W. Bush on Thursday _ a meeting that the U.S. hopes will
lead to China's help in nuclear standoffs with Iran and North Korea.
For the Chinese president, the visit offers an opportunity to burnish China's
image at a time of mounting questions and concerns in the U.S. about that
country's growing economic might.
Hu deliver a speech at Yale the following day.
Yale's relationship with China dates to 1854, when Yung Wing became the first
Chinese citizen to graduate from an American university, the school said.
Yale President Richard Levin has dramatically expanded that relationship in
recent years. Today, the university has more than 80 academic collaborations
with Chinese institutions and offers 26 study sites in China.
More than 300 of Yale's 11,000 students are Chinese, making them the largest
group of foreign students at the school.