A Chinese government magazine has started a campaign to list the 15 most influential overseas specialists in the country's development over the last three decades.

International Talent magazine, published by the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs, has invited a panel of 38 judges to select the 15 experts from a short-list of 29 candidates.

The list includes Chinese-American architect Ieoh Ming Pei, who designed the Fragrant Hill Hotel on the outskirts of Beijing and the Bank of China building in Hong Kong in the 1980s, and the bank's Beijing headquarters in 1995. In 2004, he designed the Chinese embassy in Washington D.C..

Also listed are Chinese American Nobel physics laureates Yang Chen-ning and Lee Tsung-dao and China women's hockey coach Kim Chang-back, from the Republic of Korea, who helped the team win silver at the Beijing Olympics.

The finalists are to be announced at the opening of an international talent forum of the 2008 Conference on International Exchange of Professionals on Nov. 29 in Shenzhen.

The judging panel comprises experts from the China International Publishing Group, China Personnel Newspaper, Beijing University, Shenzhen General Chamber of Commerce, China Society for Research on International Exchange and Personnel Development and senior experts with long experience of introducing overseas talent to the mainland.

An organizing committee official said the move was aimed at raising awareness of overseas experts. They would be appraised according to their contributions and influence.

Most of the candidates were winners of the Friendship Award, the top honor awarded by the Chinese government to foreign experts who make outstanding contributions to China's economic construction and social development, and the China International Science and Technology Cooperation Award.

(Xinhua News Agency October 27, 2008)