Located in the heart of buzzing Silicon Valley and overlooking the arterial California highway 101, Zhongguancun Silicon Valley Innovation Center stands out with the name of the building in glaring square characters, declaring a new era in China's technology story.

The Beijing-Silicon Valley Talent and Technology Summit, which was held in the center on Wednesday, marked a concrete step forward.

"China has reached a stage at which it yearns for good tech talent and innovation," said Chen Jining, acting mayor of Beijing, in his keynote speech. "We need to address many challenges we are having with advanced high-tech and innovations."

During the summit, a $300 million fund was announced to foster China-US technology cooperation. Eight prominent Chinese and Western scientists were appointed to join ZGC's Overseas Strategic Scientists Committee.

"Silicon Valley is such an inspiring place," Chen said. "It is a place one should visit often. Meanwhile, talented people from overseas should come to Beijing to admire its fast development."

The summit - in which hundreds of scientists, entrepreneurs and university professors participated - "adds highlight to the future of our countries' cooperation," said United States Congressman Ro Khanna.

Cui Yi, a professor of materials science in Stanford University said: "It is very encouraging to see our homeland place such great importance on overseas scientists. We now have many opportunities and much space to use our skills and experiences to contribute."

In one summit highlight, Richard Karp, a professor of computational theory at the University of California Berkeley, disclosed a newly developed app with which smartphone users can detect earthquakes.

Other innovations included a robotic secretary named Xiao Mi, whose presentation drew laughter from the audience.

Erik Lassila, manager of ZGC Peakview US Fund, who oversees the $300 million technology cooperation fund, noted that "China has become a strategically important part in the world's technology market and its development".

This is a story by a freelancer in San Francisco.

(China Daily 09/22/2017 page5)