The Roosevelt Family has a long-standing,unique connection with China. Beginning with our chairman’s great-grandfather, Mr. Tweed Roosevelt’s Great-grandfather, President Roosevelt, the family has had strong ties to China and the Chinese people. The even-handed and capable nature with which President Roosevelt interacted with China during some of its most turbulent times is remembered with great appreciation and respect to this day. Moreover, through RCI, the Roosevelt’s continue to invest in the future of China.
Tsinghua University
One of China ‘s most prominent institutions of higher learning, Tsinghua University was founded in 1907 with funds directed by President Theodore Roosevelt. After the 1900 Boxer Rebellion, Western powers imposed crushing indemnities on the Qing dynasty for supporting the attacks on Westerners in China. President Roosevelt called on Congress to redirect part of the indemnities to fund a Western-style academy and to establish a scholarship fund for Chinese students to study abroad. Tsinghua was designed to be a place where China ‘s best and brightest could study the most advanced curricula, on par with major Western universities. The Qing surrendered an imperial garden north of the Forbidden City for the school’s campus. By the late 1930s the campus had developed into a full-fledged university with faculty boasting more Ivy League Ph.D.’s than many US universities.