Association of Chinese Professionals (ACP) is a name for a number of not-for-profit organizations in United States of America, and potentially some local organizations in Australia, Europe and China. These organizations do not share any organizational relations or any hierarchical relations.
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An organization was first registered in the state of New Jersey in the early 1992 under the name "Association of Chinese Professionals" (ACP) with a Chinese name "中华专业人士协会". At that time, the first wave of the students from Mainland China was graduating from graduate schools and entering into the American work force. Many of them felt the need for having means to get reconnected to their peers after leaving schools. A Ph. D. graduate from GoergeTech Mr. Wenming Kuai made the first call by sending an email for this organization. Later a mailing list on listserver at emailogy.com was requested by Kuai to enable communications between the members. Another Ph. D. working as a research faculty in University of Pennsylvania Mr. Linxiong Shao took the task to register the organization in the state of New Jersey. In the meanwhile, a Board of Trustees of twelve members and a Bylaws were created in accordance with the laws.
This organization grew rapidly, under competitions of other not-for-profit organizations of similar purpose, noticeably from the CAST (Chinese Association of Science and Technology) based in New York. A number of local activities were organized in ACP's headquarter the Greater Philadelphia Metropolitan Area. A number of attempts were made to solicit sponsorship for the new born without fruitation. However, delegation from ACP was invited to participate and had contributed in numerous discussions with official delegations from China on topics of major concerns such as the industrial sectors the Chinese economy should first concentrate to develop. In the early 1993, the First National Assembly of Association of Chinese Professionals was held in Newark, Delaware.
There was a reason for the term "Chinese Professionals" (中华专业人士) to be chosen in the organization's name. At the time of its inception, a number of other not-for-profit organizations were being organized by these new Chinese immigrants, and in general all of the other organizations had been set up for a specialized field, such as practice of laws, chemical engineering, or general science and technology. In the case of ACP, its founding members included not only engineers and researchers, but also other professionals such as insurance agents. The name was then chosen to cover all walks of business, and it proved to be a wise choice.
There are other organizations under the name "Chinese Professionals", including the followings: