From March 3 to 12, 2019, LUSM Delegation, including Guoxian Bao, honorary dean, Wensheng, He, dean, Xuejun Wang, associate dean, etc. attended ASPA 2019 Annual Conference held in Washington. DC and visited two American universities.

On March, 3-5, professor Guoxian Bao, Wensheng He and Xuejun Wang visited School of Government and Public Policy (SGPP), the University of Arizona and held a talk with H. Brinton Milward, dean of SGPP and Professor Kirk Emerson. The two sides explored areas of mutual interest including research, joint PhD program, and discussed schedules of Professor Emerson’s visit at Lanzhou University as a Fulbright visiting scholar. LUSM and SGPP agreed to carry out joint research on issues in the field of performance governance and public value and to achieve high-level results.

In the next two days, professor Guoxian Bao, and Xuejun Wang visited Askew School of Public Administration and Policy, Florida State University and talked with Dean Keon-Hyung Lee, Professor Gary Van Landingham and Assistant Professor Tang Tian. The two parties shared experience in public administration education with each other and hoped to establish academic research collaboration taking the opportunity of the visit and Xiang Ma, a LUSM student’s studying at FSU as a joint PhD student. While in Florida, the delegation also visited Florida Department of Health's Division of Performance Management & Vital Statistics and Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability (OPPAGA), and had a deep understanding of its ideas and practices in the aspect of value guidance, evaluation framework, performance supervision, etc. in the field of performance management.

On March 9, the two leaders arrived at Washington DC and gathered with Dean He, Professor Guoxing Zhang, Associate Professor Mei Lang and Dr. Haixu Bao. In the next 4 days, the faculty and 3 students of LUSM attended ASPA 2019 annual conference, which as the biggest academic meeting in public administration in the US, has gathered many brightest minds in the field. The delegation successfully held a panel session on Chinese and American government performance management in the past 40 years based on PV-GPG framework, with Professor Kuotsai Tom Liou, the former president of ASPA as moderator and Professor Stephen Condrey, the former president of ASPA, Professor David Rosenbloom and Professor Kaifeng Yang as discussants. The discussants spoke highly of the quality of the research results and internationalization of LUSM's team and offered pertinent suggestions. The delegation was also invited to participate in two sub-forums: public finance and non-profit organizations, perfecting and redefining the performance and responsibility of local governance.

In addition, Dean He was invited to participate in the Deans Forum cohosted by Section on Chinese Public Administration and China-America Association for Public Affairs. He gave a detailed introduction to the young scholars at home and abroad participating in the conference on student training, scientific research and talent recruitment and invited them to visit LUSM and join LUSM.

The visit expanded research cooperation between LUSM and high-level universities and professors in the United States, further enhanced the influence of LUSM in the field of public administration in the United States, and played a positive role in further promoting the internationalization of the school.