Politics and a lack of money resulted in decades of neglect for the social sciences in China, by foreign and domestic institutions alike. American universities looking to establish partnerships here have focused instead on high-demand fields like finance and the hard sciences. But societal change, along with a government push to develop more comprehensive universities, is sparking a proliferation of new partnerships in a variety of fields, including sociology, education, and social work. According to Ailei Xie, an education scholar at the University of Hong Kong who tracks international partnerships on the mainland, the Chinese government wants to directly import some very high-level academicians to develop world-class research. These partnerships, which are mostly new and small in scale, bring immediate benefits to both partners. Chinese academics find the expertise needed to quickly develop these fields. American academics, in turn, gain valuable research opportunities. This article takes a look at the University of Michigan-Peking University Joint Institute, a collaboration made between the Peking University and the University of Michigan to promote the social science discipline in China.