Xian, China (Nov. 15, 2017) — Northwest University in Xian has recently appointed the Sri Lankan-born Harvard scholar Patrick Mendis, Ph.D., as a distinguished visiting professor of international affairs.
Xian is the leading education center in the central-northwest region for research and development as well as national security and space exploration. The doctoral-degree granting institution was established in 1902 and it has now over 18,000 students, including more than 500 international students.
Mendis is an associate-in-research of the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University. For his interdisciplinary academic background and government experience he is currently appointed to serve as a distinguished visiting professor of Asian-Pacific affairs at the Shandong University in Jinan. He is also a visiting researcher at the China’s National Confucius Research Institute in Qufu, a visiting scholar at Peking University, and a senior fellow of the Pangoal Institution — a leading global-governance think-tank in Beijing.
An expert on Sino-American relations and foreign policy, Mendis recently completed book and lecture tours in New Zealand and Australia. He followed with the inaugural BRI public lecture at the Hong Kong University as well as the keynote speech at the Eigth World Confucian Conference in Qufu, the birthplace of Confucius.
Mendis is the author of more than 150 books, journal articles and newspaper columns. His most recently published a book, “Peaceful War: How the Chinese Dream and the American Destiny to Create a Pacific New World Order,” is also published in Mandarin Chinese in Beijing.
Mendis previously served as a visiting scholar or a distinguished visiting professor at the Universities of Anhui, Fudan, Guangdong, Nanjing, Tongji, Wuhan, Wuxi, Xian, and Zhejiang as well as the Chinese Foreign Affairs University of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He also lectured at the Chinese National Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, and the Hunan Academy of Social Sciences as well as over 25 universities in Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Jiangsu, Sichuan, Taiwan and others.
Mendis has visited all the 50 states in the United States and the 34 provinces of China, and traveled to or worked in 126 countries.
A former American diplomat and a military professor, Mendis is currently serving as a commissioner to the US National Commission for UNESCO, an appointment by the Obama White House. He is an alumnus of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, the University of Minnesota’s Hubert Humphrey School of Public Affairs, and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
Xian is the an ancient capital of China, and known as the home of the Terracotta Warriors and the origin of the famous silk road. Under President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative, the city and Shaanxi are central to China’s “Go West Campaign.”
