The Chinese Optical Society (COI) was founded in 1979 with Wang Daheng as its first president. Currently the society has 15,000 individual members. In 1987, the Chinese Optical Society interconnected with the International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE) while forming a larger organization named by combining both names; hence, this relationship became the Chinese Optical Society/International Society for Optical Engineering (COI-SPIE).