Young Americans encouraged to build on friendships

When Kiana Haywood wrote to President Xi Jinping after visiting China, she said that she wanted him to know that the friendships she had formed would not end with the trip.

"After everything we experienced, we want to say thank you and share what the trip meant to us," said Haywood, a senior at Central Michigan University. She was among nearly 100 students from 10 US universities who wrote to Xi to share their experiences and what they had gained from the Future Makers 2026 China-US Youth Tour for a Shared Asia-Pacific Future, as well as other exchange events in China.

A reply arrived on the eve of Xi's state visit to the United States.

In his letter, Xi expressed the hope that they would help carry forward, uphold and advance China-US friendly cooperation.

"His message about young people helping build understanding and friendship between our countries really stood out to me because, after this trip, I felt like we had experienced exactly what that can look like," Haywood said.

She added that she valued the chance to experience China firsthand, rather than relying solely on what she had heard or seen at home.

Marlon Forrester, an associate in African and African American Studies at Harvard University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, said, "I believe that when we are given a gift, we have a responsibility to reciprocate with grace, humility and gratitude."

The reply was the latest in a series of exchanges between Xi and ordinary Americans. In January, Xi wrote back to a delegation of students and teachers from Florida who had visited China, encouraging more young Americans to become a new generation of envoys of friendship.

In February, he replied to friends in the US state of Iowa, expressing the hope that they would continue to promote friendship between the two peoples and encouraging more young Americans to carry it forward.

In November 2023, Xi announced an initiative to invite 50,000 young Americans to China for exchanges and study over five years. By May this year, two-and-a-half years after its launch, more than 50,000 young Americans from all 50 US states and Washington, DC, had participated.

The weeklong visit took Haywood and other participants to Jinan, the capital of Shandong province, then to Qufu, the hometown of Confucius (551-479 BC), and finally to Beijing. They visited Confucian heritage sites, the Great Wall and the Temple of Heaven, joined university exchanges and toured technology facilities.

In Qufu, Haywood, the Central Michigan University student, was particularly impressed by a performance at the Confucius Museum about the life of the ancient Chinese philosopher.

"Instead of just reading about his life and teachings, we were able to see his story told through music, movement, costumes and art," she said.

Forrester's attention was drawn to the wooden brackets, tiled roofs and courtyards of Qufu's historical architecture. "The craftsmanship and attention to detail revealed a deep respect for tradition, history and architectural harmony," he said.

"The museum showed how art can preserve knowledge, transmit values across generations, and foster a deeper understanding of a people's history and identity," he added.

At Qufu Normal University and Tsinghua University in Beijing, Haywood found that she had much in common with the Chinese students she met. "We might live on opposite sides of the world and grow up in different cultures, but we talked about school, our families, our future careers, music, and just normal college life," she said. "Those experiences made China feel a lot less far away to me."

Ainsley Reigler, a fellow senior at Central Michigan University who missed the first week of classes to join the visit, said in a social media post that it might have been "one of the best decisions of my life".

"I may have missed the first week of classes, but I gained a different kind of education, one shaped by new perspectives, meaningful conversations, cultural exchange and friendships that crossed borders," she wrote.

Writing in People's Daily on Wednesday, Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng said friendship between the two peoples has always been a source of strength for China-US relations.

He cited recent US polls showing increasingly favorable views of China and noted that the US was China's largest source of tourists among nonneighboring countries in the first half of the year.

The sincere friendships forged by young Chinese and Americans across the Pacific are giving fresh impetus to friendship between the two countries, he added.

For Haywood, those connections remain part of her life back home.

"This experience showed me how important youth exchanges can be, because real relationships allow us to understand one another as people, not just as people from different countries," she said. "I still WeChat with the friends I made there and keep up with their lives."