Jeffrey Lehman, vice chancellor of NYU Shanghai, has devoted himself to promoting joint ventures between Chinese and American educational institutions since the early 2000s. CGTN reporter Lin Nan brings you his story.

JEFFREY LEHMAN Vice Chancellor, NYU Shanghai "My name is Jeffrey Lehman. I first visited China in 1998 as part of a delegation of American law school deans who are meeting with our counterparts, Chinese law school deans back then. That was my awakening to the changes that were happening in this country and to the possibilities for cooperation between the United States and China."

"I ended up moving to China in the year 2008 at the request of my friend Xu Zhihong, the president of Peking University, to help found the School of Transnational Law, it was challenging. Now 12 years later, the school is thriving."

"I moved to Shanghai in 2012 to help with the creation of a full research university that integrates the best of American higher education with the best of Chinese higher education. NYU Shanghai has been a unique experiment, an experiment in higher education for China, which is focused on nurturing cross cultural sophistication in our students and also nurturing our students creativity and their capacities to innovate."

"We're living at a time when people move, when people communicate continuously with people from other countries. And so preparing young people today for adult lives of satisfaction and contribution means preparing them to cross borders. And to do that, we need universities in the United States and universities in China to cooperate, so that the next generation of students will have all of the opportunities that they deserve."

"I'm very, very fortunate. I've had these incredible opportunities to work with very high quality institutions that share my values, that share my belief that cooperation and partnership between China and the rest of the world, between China and the United States in particular, is important in order that we can address the challenges that the whole world is facing, and that we can seize the opportunities that are presented in modern times."

"I was very touched to be honored in these ways. This notion of being one of the 40 most influential foreign experts really moved me very deeply. It meant a great deal to me because I have made this such a key priority in my own life. I really want to do everything I can to facilitate cooperation. And it meant a lot to be recognized for that."