[Correspondent Diary] 14-Year-Old Geniuses Admitted to Tsinghua University in China

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[Asia Economy Beijing=Special Correspondent Jo Young-shin] As Chinese universities began their semester on the 2nd, statistics related to the 2021 Gaokao (高考, Korea's College Scholastic Ability Test) freshmen, including those at Tsinghua University, were released.

In particular, news that two 14-year-old middle school students were admitted to Tsinghua University was broadcasted by China Central Television (CCTV), sparking a heated response on Chinese social network services (SNS). To enter prestigious universities like Peking University or Tsinghua University, one must literally be among the top few in their province.

Chinese President Xi Jinping Visits Tsinghua University in Beijing
Photo by Yonhap News

The two 14-year-old protagonists who captured the attention of 1.4 billion Chinese people are Li Xianyou and Qing Dajiu. They skipped the three years of high school and entered China's top prestigious university. They passed Tsinghua University's "Mathematics and Science Leading Talent Cultivation Program." They became university students based solely on their outstanding math and science skills without taking the Gaokao exam.

Chinese media introduced their hometowns, middle school life, and study secrets. Li is from Tengchong City, Yunnan Province, and reportedly self-studied middle and high school mathematics starting in the 5th grade of elementary school. It is said that in the year he graduated elementary school, he solved high school entrance exam math problems scoring 116 out of 120 points. During middle school, he studied university-level mathematics on his own and showed excellent abilities in other subjects as well. Chinese media added that Li has had excellent writing skills from reading many books since he was young.

The other 14-year-old university student, Qing, is from Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province. Qing, who is reported to be 194 cm tall, demonstrated outstanding abilities in mathematics and physics, gaining admission to Tsinghua University without taking the Gaokao exam.

Chinese media reported that these 14-year-old prodigies will complete undergraduate (3 years), master's (2 years), and doctoral (3 years) programs at Tsinghua University. They also added that a total of 68 freshmen were admitted through the Mathematics and Science Leading Talent Cultivation Program.

In May, the Chinese Ministry of Education designated 12 universities as future technology talent cultivation universities, actively fostering science and technology talents. This is part of the effort to win the technological competition with the United States. This includes seven key scientific research projects such as semiconductors. Tsinghua University's Mathematics and Science Leading Talent Cultivation Program is part of this initiative. Before admitting freshmen for the 2021 academic year, Tsinghua University also established a semiconductor college.

Although Chinese media did not provide detailed reports on the 68 students admitted through Tsinghua University's Mathematics and Science Leading Talent Cultivation Program, it is presumed that most are prodigies like Li and Qing. Tsinghua University plans to separately select up to 100 gifted students annually through this program.

President Xi Jinping expressed his determination to secure core technologies and cultivate talents during his visit to his alma mater, Tsinghua University, in April.

Meanwhile, some data on freshmen admissions to prestigious Chinese universities for the 2021 academic year have been partially released. This year, Beijing University of Technology, considered one of China's top 10 prestigious universities (Future Technology Academy), admitted a total of 3,437 freshmen. Among them, 2,213 are male students and 1,224 are female students. The youngest freshman is 15 years old. Wuhan Huazhong University of Science and Technology also reported that among its approximately 7,000 freshmen, the youngest student was born in December 2005. Beijing University of Technology, which newly established the Department of Cryptographic Science and Technology this year, admitted 3,630 students, with the youngest admitted student being 15 years old.