The 21st Century Institute, founded in the early 1990s, is a non-profit organization based in Chicago with its branch offices in New York and Los Angeles of the United States, and in Beijing, Shanghai and Kunming of China. The goal of the institute is to maximize human potential by integrating intellectual, cultural, economic, scientific, and technological resources from different geographical regions of the world. The Institute strives to be a strong and vital link in bridging the diversity of nations. The current focus of the Institute is networking between the United States and Asia-Pacific region.