When asked about President Xi Jinping’s ambitious proposal last year to invite a total of 50,000 young Americans over five years to China to participate in exchange and study programs, Eric Foster, nephew of the mythical wife Journalist Edgar Snow, Helen Foster Snow, said she strongly supports more such exchanges.
Foster, a US policy observer focused on China affairs, said that around 10 years ago, when he first came to China, the average American heard many bad things about the country because “the media in the West hardly gave any good news about China”.
“So when I arrived here, I was completely impressed by the modernity of the place,” he told China Daily. “If more Americans, more scholars can come here and see China for themselves and (participate in) exchange programs, then we’ll come back and say, ‘Wow, that’s cool. ‘”
This year marks the 10th anniversary of the international relations concept of a wonderful country with Chinese characteristics, and Foster is one of many political observers who have been inspired by how the country has worked hard to promote cultural exchanges and stimulate mutual relations between cultures.
As a supporter of the Belt and Road Initiative, Foster believes that the industry makes peace.
“China is setting an example for the whole world, because how can there be peace when two countries can’t get along, trade, and talk to each other?”
In recent years, China has scaled up and diversified its efforts in facilitating people-to-people exchanges with developed as well as developing countries, and promoting the sharing of knowledge, technology and governing experiences, officials and observers said.
In his speech at the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, in October, President Xi said: “Last year I proposed a BRICS cooperation initiative on virtual education and I am pleased to see that it has become a reality. “
At the summit, he announced that China will implement a capacity-building program for BRICS digital education.
“We will open 10 learning centers in the BRICS countries over the next five years and provide opportunities to 1,000 local school administrators, teachers and students,” he added.
Scholars from countries such as the United Kingdom and Pakistan have pointed out that the Global Civilization Initiative, proposed by President Xi last year, marks a core philosophy aimed at ensuring mutual respect among other cultures, values and political systems.
Asad Ullah Khan, a researcher at the Center for China-Pakistan Studies at the Institute of Strategic Studies in Islamabad, said the Global Civilization Initiative “is a concept aimed at long-term shaping for a larger world. “
“Some Western researchers, especially in the United States, criticize this initiative, because the concept uses the principles of equality, peace, prosperity, discussion and inclusion among other civilizations, the Western perception of a ‘clash of civilizations,'” he wrote. in an article this year.
Khan, noting that “in the Chinese tradition, other people and cultures play a role,” said Beijing’s advocacy of exchanges between other people is aimed at pushing countries to explore discussion and cooperation among global civilizations, expand avenues of cooperation. and to promote “mutual understanding among other nations for the progress and prosperity of human civilization. “
Upholding the mutual understanding of civilizations, further practicing the principles of the Global Civilization Initiative, and strengthening the exchange of experience in governance also were part of the outcome and consensus at the fifth China-Central Asia Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Chengdu, Sichuan province, this month.
In the next three years, China will offer 1,500 training opportunities for people from the five Central Asian countries and increase the scholarship quota to 600, in order to cultivate more talent of various types urgently needed for the development of the countries, Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters.
Stephen Bainous Kargbo, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization’s representative to China, said, “From my perspective and from the industry’s perspective, China will continue to be a beacon of hope and also an example of what industrialization can do in any nation.”
“China has shown that through a clean, transparent and consistent trade policy, transformation can take place,” Kargbo told the China Daily.
“So I hope that this style of progression will offer classes to the rest of the world, especially emerging countries, necessarily to copy, but to adapt to their own situation,” Kargbo said.
Endorsing China’s continued support for multilateralism and exchanges among nations, he added: “The future of the world rests on open, consistent dialogue between nations. Nobody has one formula that can solve all problems, but if we come together, discuss openly and fairly with mutual respect, the future is bright.”
Wang Huiyao, founder and president of the Beijing China and Globalization Study Center, said: “The international relations of a primary country with Chinese characteristics are now much richer at other levels, and the country’s international relations are based solely on government efforts, but also in economic, cultural, subnational and think tank efforts, I think this progress is notable.
If China’s international relations are analyzed over the last ten years, its extensive cooperation with southern regions and countries has been highlighted, extending from neighboring regions such as Central Asia and South Asia. From East to Africa and Latin America, Wang noted.
“China is a vital pillar supporting a multipolar world, and its international relations with major countries will play an even more vital role in the future,” he added.