The reporter attended the opening ceremony of the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) recently. The Research Institute, donated jointly by Patrick J. McGovern, Chairman of International Data Group, and his wife, Lore Harp McGovern, will be engaged in improving communication and eliminating conflict among mankind. It will focus on research into how the human brain works, receives and analyzes information, associates it with other facts and experiences, stores and retrieves it effectively. The Institute will also focus on research into mental illness and brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, schizophrenia, autism, dyslexia and macular degeneration. In 2005, Mr. and Mrs. McGovern were listed among the top 20 philanthropists in the United States. Below is the transcript of a recent interview the reporter conducted with Mr. McGovern.

Reporter: You are among the world's top philanthropists and have donated some of the largest sums of money to educational/medical research institutions. Could you please tell Chinese readers your own views on personal wealth?

McGovern: If you have the good fortune to develop personal wealth, you have a responsibility to employ it for the benefit of society to improve harmony, to improve the standard of living and the quality of people’s lives. You feel it’s not really yours. It’s your responsibility to invest it back to society. All our children have their own professional lives and careers, and they said they don’t want to be burdened by inheriting our wealth; they want to develop their own careers and life styles. So they said to us that the right thing to do is to donate our money, and then we would be proud of being associated with that action.

Because of my business background, I learned that if you want to be successful, you should focus on one clear mission and goal and put all your energies into that. If you give your money to many different causes, there will be no major influence. So my wife and I chose to study the human brain as the focus of our venture philanthropy, and we concentrated our gift on brain research. The scientific result will benefit not only the American people but also the peoples of Asia and Europe.

Reporter: You said that research on the human brain has a great impact on the future of human beings. Could you please predict the areas in which the Brain Research Institute will contribute to mankind in the next 10 or 20 years?

McGovern: There are three main goals that we need to achieve to convert scientific research into useful progress. One is the area of education and communication of information. For example, the media can send information to others. The second area is to understand how our brain works and how other brains work in order to better the communication between people to avoid conflict. The third aspect is to cure mental illness and brain diseases.

In the next 15 to 20 years, the most definitive progress would be finding the causes of some mental illnesses and brain diseases such as schizophrenia, autism and dyslexia. There will also be some discoveries at the McGovern Institute that allow people to understand what causes mutual misunderstanding among people of different nationalities. It is hard to predict what the scientific results will be, because it is an adventurous journey.

Reporter: You have said that you are going to establish similar institutes for brain research in Asia and in Europe. MIT and Tsinghua University are “friendship” schools. Have you ever thought of establishing an institute for brain research in Tsinghua University in China?

McGovern: I am very cautious about choosing which country, which institution or which university in Asia to locate the McGovern Institute. I highly respect Tsinghua University. Its quality of education is outstanding; its graduates are impressive; it has many connections with MIT. MIT says, “We are the Tsinghua University of the United States.”

So we are still in an early phase. People in some countries have heard about this idea of establishing McGovern Institutes. A couple of research institutes and universities in Japan have contacted us and said, “We are the right place for you to establish the McGovern Institute.” Today, we haven’t heard from any Chinese institutions, probably because they may not be aware of this. If we could make an agreement with our partners by 2007 or 2008, then we could start to design buildings, and the buildings will open by 2011 or 2012. I welcome any interest from Tsinghua University.

My wife and I have a plan that over the next 10 years we would like to make contributions, including to the McGovern Institute here in the U.S., of $1.2 billion to support neuroscience research. We will donate $300 million to $400 million in Asia and Europe respectively.

I visit China more often than any other country in the world. I have great experience in China, and the Chinese government has been supportive to our investment activities. My wife and I would be very pleased if China becomes the site of this institution. That would be a good reason to visit China more often. I predict that by 2020, China will be our largest country in terms of revenue and activity. That would be a good time to move our headquarters to Beijing, where the largest source of revenue comes from. We might have an IDG Tower in Beijing.

Reporter: Could you please tell us about your experience in charity and donations, and could you please give us some suggestions on this for Chinese entrepreneurs?

McGovern: Make sure you plan early, as early as you can, because then you will be able to actively participate in the way your donations are being used. Very often, people wait until the time they are dying, and they donate their money to other people or groups. People who receive the money may decide to use the money for different purposes. It is so frustrating for the family of the entrepreneur, that he didn’t achieve his dream of using the money the way he wanted. I want to tell Chinese entrepreneurs to start early. Don’t wait until you are in your 70s or 80s.

Reporter: At present, although Sino-U.S. economic cooperation is becoming closer and closer, some problems still occur. For example, some are suggesting that there may a “China threat” to the United States. You are one of the American entrepreneurs to visit China the most, altogether 95 times, I have heard. What is your opinion on how Sino-U.S. relations can maintain good development and in which areas Sino-U.S. entrepreneurs should make more efforts?

McGovern: I think the real problem is that there is a huge understanding gap. American people who visit China are very surprised to find that everyone in China is so excited and enthusiastic. The Chinese people are expecting that things are getting better and better and their quality of life will continue improving. This is not what Americans expect. They wonder why they haven’t gotten a true picture of what is happening in China from the newspapers in the U.S.

So it is more important to increase personal communication as well as cultural exchanges between the two countries, so that people in the U.S. can see the reality of China. We have put CCTV-9 on the Internet, so that Americans can see a real China. We also help introduce and distribute Chinese books, newspapers and magazines to the U.S., so Americans can see Chinese as good friends, great economic partners. Economic cooperation will benefit everyone. It is a win-win relationship with China.

One of our investment projects in China is a company to make films about life in China today. We make them available to theaters and put them on the Internet so that 1.2 billion people see video on the Internet and get a real picture of China, too. Text information moves the mind, and movies often move the heart.

China could hold exhibitions of Chinese art and history and introduce more Chinese books, periodicals and movies to the U.S., so that American people get an up-to-date picture of China. Too many newspapers and magazines in the U.S. are influenced by lobby groups. They are trying to create an image of China as a threat to the U.S. The flow of information on what is happening in China will offset this political propaganda, and the American people would get a balanced picture. The Chinese government should encourage tourists to visit China. When those tourists come back and they say what marvelous people, what a great country, what a great experience they have had, they would share this with their family and their friends. More and more people would realize that China and the U.S. should be friends for economic development of the world.

China is growing to become the world’s largest economy by 2030 or 2035. In the next 10 years, great changes will take place in China. In the past, China had more trade from processing customers’ materials. The major transition in the future will be that China will have more new products and technologies designed and invented by it. So the products that the world will benefit from will be products made in China as well as products designed and made in China.

My advice to anyone who wants to invest in China is to develop a regular personal relationship with people you are going to work with. You cannot come in and finalize a deal on paper and leave. You should be willing to commit your time personally, to come over to offer your skill, your knowledge and your business methods. In addition, you may introduce your key international customers to them. You have to develop relationships not only with your invested companies but also with key government officials, so that they know your goals, they trust you, and they will be very supportive.