Jinzhen Declines to Go to the United States to Continue AI Research

Rong Jinzhen’s chance to pursue artificial intelligence in the United States ended not with a simple personal rejection, but with a letter shaped by war, obligation, and another person’s counsel. Jan Liseiwicz urged him to seek the facilities and freedom to do the work he was capable of; Young Lillie, faced with the Korean War, instructed him to say that he could not go. Rong Jinzhen returned to N University, and the letter he posted made one possible life give way to another.

An opportunity reopened

After Rong Jinzhen’s serious illness, Jan Liseiwicz kept in touch with Young Lillie from X Country. Their correspondence moved from a landscape postcard to a letter about Rong Jinzhen’s recovery and then to a longer message written on Christmas Eve. Liseiwicz disclosed little about his own work: he said he was at a research institute, but did not identify it or describe his role. The letters nevertheless carried a clear concern for his former student’s future.

In the Christmas Eve letter, Liseiwicz reported that Princeton University had brought several independent research units together in an institute devoted to artificial intelligence, directed by the mathematician Paul Samuelson. To him, the new institute confirmed that the field mattered beyond his own judgment. He hoped Rong Jinzhen, now almost fully recovered, would be able to work in it too. If research in China could not support that ambition, Liseiwicz argued, Rong Jinzhen should leave for somewhere with better conditions rather than let immediate advantages or difficulties determine his future. His appeal was not merely an invitation to study abroad: it rested on his confidence in Rong Jinzhen’s abilities and on the practical resources he believed the United States could offer.

War shapes the answer

Young Lillie did not answer Liseiwicz himself. Instead, he brought the letter to Rong Jinzhen with newspapers reporting the bloody fighting between the American Army and the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army in Korea. The newspapers made the conflict present within a private exchange between former teacher and student. Young Lillie told Rong Jinzhen to thank Liseiwicz but explain that he could not leave because of the Korean War. He recognized that the outcome would grieve Liseiwicz, and that Rong Jinzhen stood to lose most.

The decision was therefore expressed as an inability to go, not as a rejection of artificial intelligence or of Liseiwicz’s belief in him. Nor does the episode present a straightforward choice between two universities: the war constrained the choice before Rong Jinzhen could take up the opportunity. Young Lillie’s instruction gave that constraint its wording, while the newspapers supplied its immediate evidence. The prospect of leaving for research was answered by reports of a conflict in which the United States and China were on opposing sides.

Drafting a final reply

When Rong Jinzhen later brought Young Lillie a draft, its regret and disappointment occupied about half the text. Young Lillie crossed out roughly that much and returned the remainder with a further instruction: Rong Jinzhen should clip newspaper reports and send them along with his letter. The response was thus revised twice in effect: first into a message that he could not leave, and then into a message accompanied by evidence of why.

This editing did not erase the disappointment; it changed how the letter would carry it. The clippings made the political circumstance legible to Liseiwicz without requiring the reply to dwell on regret. The correspondence also reveals the different positions of the three men. Liseiwicz could advocate departure from abroad; Young Lillie had to answer from within the wartime situation; Rong Jinzhen was the one whose studies and future were at stake. His carefully worded reply conveyed the outcome of that difference in position.

The path closed by a letter

After Chinese New Year, Rong Jinzhen returned to class at N University, not to Stanford University or Princeton University. In the account of this decision, the posted letter does more than report that he will stay: it closes one of the paths his life might have taken. The narrative recalls Young Lillie’s distinction between letters that record history and letters that make it, presenting this one as an act with lasting consequences for Rong Jinzhen.

The episode leaves the offer’s promise intact while showing why it could not be taken up. Liseiwicz’s faith in Rong Jinzhen’s talent, the newly organized artificial-intelligence institute, and the prospect of better research facilities all point toward a future that remains possible in principle. Against them stand the Korean War, the instruction to remain, and Rong Jinzhen’s return to his original university. The result is not a verdict on the value of the work he might have done, but a turning point in which historical circumstances decide which opportunity becomes part of his life.