Recently, Minister XU Guanhua met with a delegation led by Alan Leshner, CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Minister XU briefed the guests on the missions of MOST, which include formulating the National Medium and Long-term Development Plan for S&T, encouraging the implementation of basic research, carrying out international S&T cooperation and promoting popular science. In his introduction on Sino-U.S. S&T cooperation, Minister XU remarked that China attached great importance to the S&T cooperation with the US and hoped to cooperate with the US in the fields of policy and laws & regulations on S&T, basic research, energy, environment, health, agriculture and popular science. Minister XU also expressed the wish that AAAS would take an active part in the cooperation that is of great significance to the long-term development of the two countries.

According to Mr. Leshner, AAAS, the largest scientific body in the world, has numerous members and subordinate academic groups, and publishes the "Science" magazine. AAAS is devoted to the promotion of scientific development, academic exchange and international cooperation and is willing to bridge China and the US for S&T exchange and cooperation.

AAAS (http://www.aaas.org ), the largest non-profit S&T organization in the world, was founded in 1848 and has been committing itself to promoting academic exchange, scientific education, human resources, and infrastructure development. It takes the initiative to provide the US Government with advisory opinions on S&T policy. It has 262 subordinate societies and 10 million members.