Tim Cook now serves as chairman of a Chinese business school

In what feels like an extremely weird move given the on-going issues with China, Apple CEO Tim Cook has just been appointed the chairman of the advisory board of Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management in Beijing, an influential Beijing university.

Cook's new role will see him replace Jim Breyer, founder and chief executive of Breyer Capital, with the Apple CEO sitting in his new chairman position for three years. Cook isn't the first prominent member of silicon valley to join the Beijing university's board, with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Tesla CEO Elon Musk both involved with the school.

This position gives them access to the upper echelon of Chinese leaders in both business, and politics. Cook's official role with the board, like its other influential board members is to assist with the development of the school. Chinese business leaders in Jack Ma the founder of Alibaba, and Pony Ma the founder of Tencent.

The board recently met, with 35 members of the advisory board attending the meeting with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg (not surprisingly) missing from the meeting. But to note, this is the second time in a row that he has missed the meeting with the Beijing university in his position.