Hong Kong (CNN Business) China and the United States are locked in a struggle for tech supremacy but you wouldn't know it from the list of luminaries on the advisory board of Tsinghua University's business school. Mark Zuckerberg, Satya Nadella and Elon Musk are all there. And now they have a new chairman — Apple CEO Tim Cook.

The university, known as "China's Harvard," has a storied history as a cradle of Chinese political and economic thought. It's one of the most elite education institutions in the country, and was even attended by Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Apple AAPL The School of Economics and Management said Cook chaired the board's annual meeting last Friday. His appointment was praised by board founder and former Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji, who said in a letter published Tuesday that he hopes the board "will become better and better" under Cook.declined to comment on the news.

The university's relationship with western leaders is strong, and the business school has included an A-list of executives — particularly from the United States — on its board since its establishment in 2000.

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