Youthful promise of closer relations

Vice-Premier Liu Yandong, long-time youth advocate, visits Europe to encourage a wide variety of educational, cultural and other exchanges

Thirty-two years ago, when she was leader of China's Youth League, Vice-Premier Liu Yandong says she started to visit Europe to boost mutual understanding among Chinese and European youth. Since then, she has set foot in 20 European countries.

Liu, arriving in Europe again for a weeklong visit starting Sept 14 to Belgium, the European Union headquarters and the United Kingdom to promote people-to-people exchanges, says the youth of both sides share great responsibility in bridging gaps in mutual understanding.

"To achieve that, the youth are our hope," Liu said in a speech at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel before she left for London on Sept 16.

Meeting with Chinese students in Belgium, Liu asked about their academic performance and encouraged them to be bridge-builders between China and Europe.

At the third round of the EU-China High-Level People-to-People Dialogue, she and her European Union counterpart, Tibor Navracsics, agree to boost student exchanges between China and the EU.

"I want to promote our respective programs for education, training, culture, youth and research," says Navracsics. "These programs give millions of young people the chance to study, work and volunteer in another country."

In 2012, China and the EU began building the people-to-people dialogue, making it a third pillar of the bilateral partnership after strategic dialogue and economic and trade dialogue, which is scheduled at the end of the month in Beijing.

Navracsics says he wants to develop common strategies for the internationalization of higher education, and continue to launch new projects for cultural diplomacy to support the contribution of culture to regional and urban development.

"And we must give new impetus to our joint activities for youth, and support language learning," says Navracsics.

Liu says China will encourage more students to study overseas while planning to boost the number of foreign students in China to 500,000, up from the current 360,000, by the end of 2020.

"This means that we are going to increase the number of foreign students in China by about 150,000 in the coming five years," says Liu. "We will open our door wider and wider, offering access for foreign youths to learn and understand China."

Citing President Xi Jinping's proposals to forge peace, growth, reform and civilization partnership between China and the EU, Liu says deepening people-to-people exchanges could solidify the foundations of such partnership.

"I am here to help materialize President Xi's proposals, together with our European friends."

Liu began her visit to Belgium with a dinner discussion with 10 senior European experts on China who also are directors of Confucius Institutes. She also inaugurated the China Cultural Center in Brussels, located within walking distance of the European Union headquarters, with Belgian Deputy Prime Minister Didier Reynders.

"Belgians are readily becoming interested in China, and this cultural center will help bring our people closer to China," says Reynders.

Shi Jian, a professor at Sichuan University in China and long involved in EU-China studies, says more than 90 percent of European college students have not visited China. "The majority of their knowledge about China comes from the Internet, newspapers and TV, and less than 40 percent of that knowledge is from the classroom," Shi says.

"Chinese college students share a similar situation when talking about their knowledge of Europe."

In the UK, Liu is leading the third meeting of China-UK High-Level People-to-People Exchange Mechanism along with the co-chair, British Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt.

Experts from both countries say people-to-people and cultural cooperation and exchanges have become increasingly significant in strengthening understanding, deepening friendship and promoting China-UK collaboration.

"During recent years, many positive outcomes have been achieved in the fields of education, science, technology, culture, sports, youth and media since the establishment of the China-UK High-Level People-to-People Dialogue," says Xiang Xiaowei, cultural counselor of the Chinese embassy in the UK.

"It has provided a steady and inexhaustible impetus for the development of bilateral relations," Xiang says.

As of Sept 16, Liu has attended a meeting of China-UK young leaders, China-UK health policy and cultural dialogues, and the inauguration of teaching facilities for the London Confucius Institute for Traditional Chinese Medicine.

She was welcomed by a concert of the London Symphony Orchestra co-sponsored by the Chinese embassy at Barbican Hall. The event commemorates the 70th anniversary of V-J Day and celebrates the first China-UK Year of Cultural Exchange. The performance was conducted by Chan Elim and included Yan Shouping on the jinghu fiddle, pianist Zhang Haochen, and a contemporary Chinese opera piece starring Zhang Jianfeng and Zhu Hong.

Liu attended the China-UK Young Leaders Roundtable, which aims to build understanding and personal relations between rising political leaders from legislatures, civil society, think tanks and business from both countries.

On Sept 18, Liu is set to attend a symposium on soccer development in China and the UK and a friendly soccer match between Chinese and UK middle school students.

She also was to visit Wales to attend the China-UK symposium on science and technology innovation, and deliver a speech at the China-UK innovation and entrepreneurship forum at Cardiff University.

On Sept 20, Liu will give a speech at the first China-UK film and TV conference, which will showcase the best of Chinese film and TV. It will also provide opportunities for interchange between Chinese and British directors, film and TV companies, and other industry professionals.

Contract the writers at fujing@chinadaily.com.cn and zhuangchunyan@chinadaily.com.cn

Gao Shuang contributed to this story.

(China Daily European Weekly 09/18/2015 page16)