The Chinese-U.S. Symposium on Systems Analysis

Since the reestablishment of relations between the United States and the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1979, a number of contacts have taken place between the OR/MS communities of the two countries. Until 1981, these contacts were in the form of Chinese delegations attending international meetings (e.g., IFORS in Toronto), and joint TIMS/ORSA meetings or travel to the PRC by individual Management Scientists. An account of one such trip, by Leon Lasdon in December 1978, appeared in Interfaces in the February 1980 issue. Others who have visited the PRC include Martin Starr, George Dantzig, John D. C. Little, and Victor Klee. This is certainly not an exhaustive list; however, it does indicate the range of contacts that have been made.

The next logical step for formalizing and extending these contacts is the holding of joint symposia and the undertaking of joint research projects. Such a joint symposium, the PRC-US Symposium on Systems Analysis was held in Xian, the capital of Shaanxi Province, April 17–21, 1981; this paper describes it.