How to promote youth exchange? Director Shen Xin’s Speech

In the second half of last year, the Global Young Leaders Dialogue 2023 Annual Forum was held in Beijing. The theme of Plenary II is “How to Create a City Friendly to Youth Development.” The panelists had in-depth discussions on how to build a youth-friendly city better. The following is a keynote speech by Shen Xin, Director General of the Department of American and Oceanian Affairs, Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC):

I come from the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries. This national people’s organization, established in 1954, is about to celebrate its 70th anniversary. Its main responsibility is to carry out exchanges and cooperate with countries worldwide at civil and local levels. One of the important tasks is to promote and coordinate the development of sister province-state and city relationships between provinces and cities in China and other countries worldwide and to carry out comprehensive and all-around cooperation projects in various fields on this basis. At present, China has established 2944 pairs of friendly provinces, prefectures, and cities with 145 countries around the world, laying a solid foundation for China’s provinces and cities to go global and expand opening up. It has also created platforms and channels to enhance exchanges, understanding, and friendship between Chinese and foreign youth.

For example, since 2009, Shanghai has held the “Shanghai International Friendly City Youth Summer Camp” every year and has successfully held 13 sessions. A total of 1431 teachers and students from 41 sister cities in 37 countries participated in the summer camp, and 670 middle school students from nearly 60 schools in Shanghai also participated as volunteers. During the two-week period, domestic and foreign campers will travel one-on-one and participate in various cultural activities.

Since 2009, Chengdu has held the “International Sister City Youth Music Week” every year, inviting young musicians from 107 sister cities to Chengdu for a one-week exchange performance. Last week, the 2023 Chengdu International Friendship City Youth Week was grandly held, with 19 music groups from 15 countries and regions in Asia, Europe, North America, South America, and Oceania participating. Dozens of performances were held in various public places in Chengdu, receiving a warm welcome.

Ladies and gentlemen, young people have always played a very important role in developing friendships between Chinese and foreign people. Since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, young people have accounted for a considerable proportion of the few foreign friends who come to China. Our first-generation leaders of New China, such as Chairman Mao Zedong and Premier Zhou Enlai, have also met with visiting youth from various countries on multiple occasions. In the 1950s and 1960s, Chairman Mao Zedong met several times with youth delegations from Asia, Africa, and Latin America to sincerely and unreservedly share the valuable experience of China’s revolutionary construction with them. In 1958, Mao Zedong solemnly said during his meeting with the African youth delegation, “You must do things according to the situation of your own country. A nation has its own history and environment, and we have suffered losses. From then on, we have received education that we should believe in the universal truth of Marxism-Leninism, but it should be combined with the actual situation of the Chinese revolution. Later, combined, it became effective and we won the war.”

Young people have also positively normalized diplomatic relations between China and Japan and Sino-US relations. In 1965 despite normalizing diplomatic relations between China and Japan, China collaborated with multiple Japanese civil society organizations to hold the “First China Japan Youth Friendship Gala” in Beijing. 38 Japanese delegations and more than 450 Japanese youth participated, many later becoming the backbone of China-Japan friendship. In 1984, the second China-Japan Youth Festival was held. A new round of youth exchange activities between China and Japan is in full swing.

In 1971, it was a chance interaction between two young table tennis players from China and the United States that led to the visit of the American table tennis delegation to China, which “propelled the big ball with small balls” and opened the ice-breaking of Sino-U.S. relations. When the US table tennis delegation came to China, Premier Zhou Enlai also specifically met with the delegation and had very interesting and vivid exchanges with them. At that time, athlete Cohen asked Zhou Enlai a question, asking him to share his views on American hippies. Zhou Enlai also said a very serious and heartfelt sentence at that time: “Perhaps young people in the world are dissatisfied with the current situation and want to seek the truth. Youth’s thoughts will fluctuate in various forms, but not all forms of expression are mature or fixed because the way to seek truth always needs to be proven right or wrong through various practices, which is allowed in youth. All ideas must be tested through practice, which is the case when we are young. Therefore, we understand the psychology of young people and are particularly curious. According to human development, a universal truth must eventually be recognized by people, just like the laws of nature. We agree that any young person has the requirement of such exploration, which is a good thing. To understand through one’s own practice. However, one thing is to always find commonality among the majority, which can lead to the development, progress, and happiness of the majority of humanity. Premier Zhou’s words touched Cowan and his family quite a bit. Cowan’s mother later learned about Premier Zhou’s words from American media, and she was very moved, He even entrusted someone to buy a large bouquet of flowers from Hong Kong to give to Premier Zhou.

After China’s reform and opening up, youth exchanges between China and Japan have become increasingly frequent and continue to receive high attention from party and state leaders.

Ladies and gentlemen, the exchange between Chinese and foreign youth is particularly important, but the current difficulties and challenges are also very severe. The COVID-19 and geopolitical disputes in the past three years have seriously impacted youth exchanges at home and abroad, especially youth exchanges between China and developed countries in the United States and the West. All kinds of activities have almost stagnated and have not recovered significantly after the improvement of the epidemic. The prospect is not optimistic. If we allow this trend to continue, the future of this world will be quite worrying. Everyone here is concerned about the relationship between China and Western countries in the United States. The public’s favorability towards China in Western countries has been continuously declining in recent years. According to a poll released by the Pew Research Center in the United States, in 2019, the proportion of Americans with a positive attitude towards China decreased from 26% to 17% last year, from 38% to 27% in the UK, from 33% to 26% in France, and so on. To reverse this downward trend and gradually restore the positive attitude of the American and Western people towards China, I think the key still needs to start with youth exchanges. For many years, young people have been the most positive group towards China among all Western countries in the United States. Taking the United States, the United Kingdom, and France as examples, or based on the research results of the Pew Center, it can be seen that among young Americans aged 18-29, their loyalty to China reached an extreme 34% in 2019. Although it dropped to 22% in 2022, it is still the most positive attitude towards China among different age groups. Countries like the UK, France, and Italy also follow this trend. Meanwhile, in 2022, it was also found that young people in the United States discuss whether the US-China relationship is important or whether American politicians visiting Taiwan are more important. Most young people still believe that the relationship between the US and China is more important.

In addition, young people from various countries share common concerns and expectations on many specific issues. For example, everyone is very concerned about getting rid of or alleviating the pressure of loan repayment, housing, employment, etc., achieving social fairness and justice better, responding more effectively to climate change, and so on. It can be said that youth exchanges still have a considerable foundation and needs. During Obama’s tenure as President of the United States, he launched a Top 100000 plan to unite with American civil forces to promote Chinese language learning among American students and encourage them to come to China to study and study abroad. At its peak, more than 30000 American students studied or traveled to Chinese universities. However, the number of American students studying in China has recently declined, especially with the COVID-19 epidemic and the deterioration of Sino-U.S. relations in the past three years. It is a very common saying that only more than 300 American students are in China, but I think it should be much more than that. Moreover, the recovery of flights between China and the United States is slow, ticket prices remain high, visa processing times are too long, and so on. The number of young people from various countries who come to China for short-term study during the pandemic is still very limited.

As far as I know, countries worldwide still hold a relatively positive attitude toward encouraging young people to come to China and are not willing to see this phenomenon of slow or stagnant youth exchanges. A US diplomat told me he studied in China during his youth and later developed a strong interest in Chinese culture and US-China relations. So, he began to become a diplomat and came to China four times to work. He believes that engaging in more communication and dialogue among young people can be beneficial for developing bilateral relations. If there is a gap in the younger generation’s understanding of China, it will be very detrimental to future bilateral relations.

Ladies and gentlemen, cities worldwide are gathering places for young people, serving as a foothold for them to achieve their life goals. Urban diversity also provides the most convenient conditions for young people worldwide to find peers and make friends. The Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries is also actively encouraging Chinese cities to widely invite young people from all over the world to visit, study abroad, and study in China through friendly cities and local exchange channels, breaking the shackles of information cocoons and ideology, and experiencing firsthand the development of China’s modernization and the struggle and efforts of important young people to achieve their dreams.

We are also carrying out various youth exchange projects with many countries, such as Europe and Latin America, and actively cooperating with various institutions, including the Center for China and Globalization (CCG), to jointly promote exchanges between Chinese and foreign youth. We also look forward to meeting more domestic and foreign friends through this forum to help us continuously explore work ideas, improve work methods, enhance work effectiveness, expand channels for communication and dialogue between Chinese and foreign young generations, build a platform, and enable young people from all countries to find the largest common divisor and draw the largest concentric circle in this complex world, jointly playing a positive role in maintaining world peace and achieving sustainable development.