Professor Zhou Hanmin

Speech of the Public Orator

Vice- Chancellor,

The Shanghai World Expo is a truly remarkable event. The scale of its physical size, the range of its exhibitors, the amazing endless variety of display and performance, absolutely take the breath away. The Expo’s ambition has been to put on, quite literally, one of the very biggest shows the world has even seen. Its ambitions in terms of visitor numbers, and in its bold and confident welcoming in to modern China the countries, cities and major organisations of the world, have involved challenges on a gigantic scale. Not the least of these challenges will have been the sheer enormity of the planning and operational management of the entire project, from daring conception to brilliantly successful delivery. Professor Zhou Hanmin has been at the very heart of that work, from long before the Expo was even awarded to Shanghai. And its spectacular success owes a special debt to his vision and his sustained drive and energy in working to make that vision a triumphant reality.

Zhou Hanmin was born in Shanghai in 1957. His parents were ordinary people and factory workers with traditional values of hard work, honest, kindness and family responsibility. These strengths were to prove invaluable for Hanmin, as he found his own education in the years from 1965 and 1975 seriously compromised by the effects of the Cultural Revolution. That period in China’s more recent history left the school and university systems in a ruinous state which lighted the crucial formative years of a generation. Hanmin, like countless others, was unable to attend university and after leaving middle school was assigned to be a worker in a central hospital. There was also a pressing need to support his family. But he had been taught by his farther to be useful in society, and his qualities of determination and perseverance came early to the fore. As the country moved forward after the trial of the Gang of Four, Hanmin enrolled at the Shanghai Institute of Foreign Trade, where he studied Economics and then Law. His outstanding academic ability quickly became apparent, and after a period studying International Law at Wuhan University, Hanmin returned to Shanghai Institute of Foreign Trade for further legal studies. His academic career progressed rapidly, and after appointment as a lecturer at the institute in 1987, he was already a full professor by 1993 at the age of thirty-six. He served as Dean of the Law School and in 1995, Professor Zhou was elected Vice-President of his University.

The rise in Professors Zhou’s career coincided with the momentous development of the free trade zone of Pudong District in Shanghai. His own academic research was focused on the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, and its successor the World Trade Organisation, and he wrote the first book in China on this subject. This work was an excellent preparation for increasing involvement in the great project of the opening up of the Pudong to world trade which commended in the spring of 1990. His career moved on to a bigger stage in 2000 when became a public servant as Deputy Chief Commissioner of Shanghai Pudong New Area People’s Government. In this role he consolidated a major contribution to the drafting of a regulatory framework for the development of Pudong.

With growing experience from his widening involvement in public affairs, Professor Zhou was despatched to Paris in 2002 as the Chinese delegate to the Bureau of International Expositions, the governing body of world and international expositions. His task was a one-man fill-time mission to lead the whole process of bidding for the World Expo in 2010 in Shanghai. His academic credentials and experience in public services were complemented by unusual linguistic and diplomatic skills in this demanding role. Professor Zhou worked at his task in Paris for thirteen months, generously supported by the Secretary General of the International Bureau of Expositions, Senor Vincente Loscertales. The process ended in success for China, which in competition with five other cities around the world gained fifty-four votes from the eight-eight voting countries, and brought the Expo to Shanghai.

Since 2003 Professor Zhou has worked as the Deputy Director General of the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Co-ordination. This has been a principle leading role in the entire organisation and management of the Shanghai Expo, culminating in the site and exhibition which we see today.

The city of Liverpool is especially proud to have been chosen to represent the United Kingdom at the Shanghai Expo. The two cities have deep historic links, and we greatly value the honour of our status as one of Shanghai’s twin cities. We hope and believe that our two cities will continue to grow and develop mutual friendship, communication and trade in the years to come. In the nineteenth century Liverpool was one of the very greatest seaports in the world, just as Shanghai is today, and as Liverpool enjoys a magnificent rebirth of its prosperity and international presence we look to Shanghai to help us to become once again a major force in world commerce and industry.

Today we honour Professor Zhou Hanmin, on his own account as a person who has used his knowledge, common sense and wisdom to serve the city of Shanghai, and the national that he loves. But we honour him also as the representative of the great collective effort that has created the Shanghai Expo. The University of Liverpool welcomes Professor Zhou in to its distinguished company of honorary graduates, as a leading academic who has proved himself on a great stage in public life. But we award the degree today also on behalf, not just of the University and city of Liverpool, and of the United Kingdom, but of all countries and cities, and companies, who are exhibitors in this magnificent exposition. It has brought the whole world in to meet the people of modern China, in friendship and in hope for a co-operative and creative future.

Vice Chancellor, in the name of the Council and Senate of the University, I present to you for admission to the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, in this University, Professor Zhou Hanmin.