“People-to-people exchanges — direct communications between Chinese people and their foreign counterparts in all walks of life — form part of the foundation of President Xi’s international way of thinking,” Robert Lawrence Kuhn, chairman of the Kuhn Foundation, instructed Xinhua.
BEIJING, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) — “I felt extremely grateful when I received the greeting card from President Xi,” mentioned Brian Suy, an eleventh grader from the Lincoln High School within the U.S. state of Washington.
On Jan. 1, Chinese President Xi Jinping and his spouse, Peng Liyuan, replied to a New Year card from representatives of center faculty academics and college students from Washington state.
In their reply card, the couple expressed their hope that the youth of China and the United States will proceed to take part in China’s initiative of inviting 50,000 younger Americans to China for trade and examine applications in a five-year span.
Earlier, the U.S.-China Youth and Student Exchange Association, in addition to representatives of academics and college students from Lincoln High School and Stadium High School, who’ve visited China by the initiative, despatched a New Year card to Xi, Peng and the Chinese individuals.
“I am willing to be a successor to keep the relations of the people of China and America strong and close,” Suy instructed Xinhua. “I believe that the world will ultimately be a better place if future generations strengthen these connections.”
BRIDGE OF FRIENDSHIP
After having obtained New Year playing cards twice from Xi and his spouse in reply to their greetings, academics and college students from Washington state are tremendously inspired, mentioned Zhou Shuqi, co-chair of the U.S.-China Youth and Student Exchange Association.
In February 2024, Xi and Peng prolonged their good needs for the Year of the Dragon of their card to Lincoln High School, inviting college students to go to China extra typically, together with by the “50,000 in five years” initiative.
These playing cards are a token of U.S.-China friendship and a bridge that connects younger individuals, which “motivate us to move forward,” mentioned Zhou.
Over a 12 months, about 14,000 American youths have visited China for exchanges and examine.
“Our experience in China was incredibly rich and rewarding,” Stadium High School Principal Shannon Marshall mentioned. “This experience has created long-lasting friendship between American students and Chinese students.”
“We would love to send more students in 2025 and are so thankful for the opportunities,” she mentioned.
“It was a privilege to have been able to sign a greeting card for President Xi,” mentioned Lucy Arceno, a scholar from Lincoln High School.
Recalling her China journey, she mentioned what impressed her essentially the most was the hospitality of the Chinese individuals. “I made quite a few Chinese friends,” she mentioned. “One of my Chinese friends had this to say after we got to know each other, ‘gradually it dawned on me that we are of no difference.’ I found this to be a very beautiful statement about friendships.”
“People-to-people exchanges — direct communications between Chinese people and their foreign counterparts in all walks of life — form part of the foundation of President Xi’s international way of thinking,” Robert Lawrence Kuhn, chairman of the Kuhn Foundation, instructed Xinhua.
“President Xi puts extra emphasis on people-to-people exchanges” within the growth of bilateral relations, Kuhn mentioned.
FRIENDSHIP THAT ENDURES
For Lincoln High School, heat interactions with Xi have been maintained for lengthy. As early as in 1993, Xi visited the varsity as then secretary of the Fuzhou Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China.
In September 2015, he revisited the varsity with Peng throughout his first state go to to the United States as Chinese president, and inspired college students to journey to China to change into extra aware of the nation.
During their keep, the couple loved within the faculty’s auditorium a choir efficiency by college students from each international locations. Lynn Eisenhauer, a music instructor on the faculty, was current.
“I have had the amazing opportunity to travel throughout China three times during 2024,” she instructed Xinhua in a latest interview. “Many of my friendships with Chinese teachers and students have begun while learning to do calligraphy together, singing side by side, or doing Tai Chi with each other.”
Eisenhauer was amazed that when she joined a bunch from Washington state to go to China final 12 months, a chance got here for the group to carry out once more earlier than Peng throughout a China-U.S. youth trade exercise in Beijing, which was “a truly magical memory.”
“One of the ways our friendships continue to grow is through these shared experiences and the common bonds they help us to create,” Eisenhauer mentioned. “Peaceful connections and enduring friendships can make the world a better place for all of us.”
Maurice Chong from Washington state participated each within the choir in 2015 and the youth trade exercise in 2024. Now an trade scholar at Peking University, Chong mentioned he was impressed by Xi to review overseas again in 2015, when the Chinese president inspired them with a Chinese adage: “Read 10,000 books and travel 10,000 miles.”
Xi’s initiative to ask American college students to China “will indeed have a big effect on people-to-people relations between the U.S. and China, and that’s what we need,” mentioned Elyn MacInnis, founding father of “Friends of Kuliang,” a bunch gathering descendants of U.S. households who as soon as lived in Kuliang, Fujian Province.
Communication is an effective bridge to construct belief, “and trust is very important for friendship,” MacInnis mentioned.
“LONG LIVE PEACE”
The 12 months 2025 marks the eightieth anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance towards Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War.
During World War II, China and the United States fought collectively for peace and justice, and the friendship between the 2 peoples stood the take a look at of blood and hearth and is rising ever stronger, Xi and Peng mentioned of their New Year card.
The couple’s phrases have been in response to the U.S. college students’ card to them, which paid tribute to this a part of historical past.
“‘Long Live Peace; Eternal Friendship.’ We wrote this wish in our card,” mentioned David Chong, founder and president of the U.S.-China Youth and Student Exchange Association.
“We want to convey the significance of maintaining world peace and the longing for future peace to young people of both countries, and encourage them to inherit this precious friendship,” Chong mentioned.
Among these sending the cardboard was William Felagai, a twelfth grader from Lincoln High School, who recalled listening to concerning the bilateral friendship from a Flying Tiger veteran. During World War II, a U.S. air squadron composed of pilots from the United States Army Air Corps, Navy, and Marine Corps helped the Chinese struggle Japanese invaders. They are higher generally known as the Flying Tigers.
“He talked about how U.S. soldiers and pilots found refuge with Chinese villagers who were willing to risk not only themselves and their families’ lives but their whole village from destruction by the Japanese military,” Felagai mentioned.
Jeffrey Greene, chairman of the Sino-American Aviation Heritage Foundation, mentioned that Xi has recalled the epic of the Flying Tigers on many events, together with in a reply letter to the muse in 2023.
The basis has launched a Flying Tigers Friendship School and Youth Leaders Program, with the participation of dozens of Chinese and U.S. center colleges and universities. The program introduced college students from 11 U.S. states to go to China in 2024, and will probably be expanded within the new 12 months, Greene mentioned.
“I’m very proud of the way that they’ve all understood the importance of what happened between China and the United States 80 years ago,” he mentioned. “What they learn is that there’s tremendous opportunity for cooperation between the Chinese people and the American people in the future.”