China is one of US top trading partners--total trade $245.2 billion in 2004. (Source: US-China Business Council http://www.uschina.org/statistic/tradetable.html)

US government has authorizes 1.3 billion in federal funds over five years to provide for Chinese language instruction in American schools, increase American consular activity supporting American commercial activities in China and provide for physical and virtual exchanges among a broad spectrum of individuals in the two nations. (Source: news release from Senator Joe Lieberman office: May 26, 2005)

 

Department of State has designated Chinese as a "critical language'"
(source: Newsweek article, May 2005)

Senator Joe Lieberman (Democrat Senator-CT) and Lamar Alexander (Republican Senator-TN) have introduced the United States-China Cultural Engagement Act in May, 2005. (Source: News release from Senator Joe Lieberman’s office, May26, 2005)

The Foreign Service Institute, which trains American diplomats, ranks Chinese as one of the four most time-intensive languages to learn.

There are approximately 937,132,000 native Chinese speakers, in comparison with Spanish speakers (332,000,000) and English speakers (322,000,000). (Source: The Summer Institute for Linguistic (SIL) ethnologies survey 1999)

Not only people in China speak Chinese, even in Calgary, Canada, 10% of the population is Chinese. (Source: Dr. David Wright, History Department, University of Calgary, Canada, 2005)

Aaccording to Asia Society News release, as China rushed toward superpower status, American schools and government officials are growing increasingly concerned by the lack of expertise in a language considered critical to national prosperity and security. (Source: Asia Society News June 11, 2005)