Northeastern University (NEU; ) is a Chinese public research university in Shenyang, Liaoning province with strengths in engineering and architecture. It is known for its prominent role in the information technology industry. The university's academic motto is "Striving endlessly for self-improvement, combining knowledge and action as one" (), the first half of which is from the ancient Chinese classic Yijing, and the latter is a direct quote from Wang Yangming and also translated as "thinking-doing to theory" by the NEU's Engineering faculty. Having built China's first electronic analog computer, university research park, and university-run commercial enterprise, Northeastern is now part of a government plan to revitalize the Northeast China economy with a focus on high-tech manufacturing. Its alumni include the founder and CEO of Neusoft, the largest Chinese IT and software outsourcing corporation, the first Olympic athlete to represent China, in the 1932 Summer Olympics, and the founder of Amnesty International in Taiwan. With a total enrollment of over 20,000 students, Northeastern has received significant government funding through the Double First Class University Plan, former 211 Project and 985 Project, initiatives which sought to elevate the research standards of rising Chinese universities. In 2017, Northeastern was selected by the Chinese Ministry of Education as a Class B institution in the national Double First Class University Plan, a major government initiative to comprehensively develop a group of elite universities into "world-class institutions" by 2050. History The Northeastern University was founded on April 26, 1923, in Shenyang (then known as Fengtian), in response to warlord Zhang Zuolin's order in early 1921 to establish tertiary education and expand the talent pool of the Northeast. After Zhang Zuolin's assassination by the Japanese, his son Zhang Xueliang inherited the command of the Northeast, assumed the title of co-president of the university in August 1928, and became the university's most important financial and political patron in its early history. With Zhang's generous support, the institution attracted top scholars and educators from throughout the nation (e.g. Zhang Shizhao, Huang Kan, Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin), and quickly developed into a top-tier comprehensive university, with six schools for science, engineering, humanities, law, agriculture and education. By the end of the 1920s, it was the biggest and best-resourced tertiary institute in China, with a budget tripling that of the Peking University. Less than a decade after the university was founded, the Imperial Japanese Kwantung Army attacked and captured Shenyang