China, U.S. Highlight People-to-People Exchanges

Los Angeles Lakers basketball player Kobe Bryant visited American students studying in China.

Washington — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong will host an event November 21 where they will make an investment in the future. They will welcome about 200 Americans and Chinese to the Department of State to get acquainted for a day and for decades to come.

The fourth annual U.S.-China Consultation on People-to-People Exchange (CPE) brings citizens in five key fields together to make plans for exchanges, mutual cooperation and shared goals. The goal of the effort is that these people — many of them quite young — will establish mutual familiarity and trust that will lead them to solutions for shared problems of the future.

“We realize that these exchanges, particularly among youth at much younger ages, help to create those bonds of understanding and those bonds of cooperation,” said Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Susan Stevenson at a November 18 press briefing. “As this generation grows older, there [will be] much broader connections … between our two countries.”

CPE brings together citizens with specialized interests in education, science and technology, culture, sports, and women’s issues. Stevenson said genuine connections are being built among participants in the Young Scientist Forum.

“These forums not only build this mutual understanding, but they foster the career development of the young scientists and look for bilateral ways to tackle more global problems,” Stevenson said.

Education is another vibrant area for exchange, with almost 235,000 Chinese students enrolled in U.S. colleges and universities, according to a comprehensive survey released in early November. About 14,600 U.S. students are studying in China, according to the Institute of International Education. The lower number of U.S. students going overseas is attributed to the lack of a tradition of foreign study among them.

State Department officials said part of their CPE work is to encourage more students to sign up for overseas studies. U.S. programs are also trying to encourage a more diverse range of young people to sign up for study abroad, including those from minority groups and of lower socio-economic status.

The 100,000 Strong Foundation, a private, nonprofit group, is working on engaging 100,000 U.S. students in exchange programs in the near future.

The CPE has brought about some notable collaborations in cultural activities. Stevenson notes a shared project by U.S. and Chinese playwrights to develop a play that was viewed in a shared Internet stream between audiences in Shanghai and in Iowa City, Iowa.

The CPE’s cultural pillar has been the springboard for cooperative projects and presentations by U.S. and Chinese museums.

Sports exchanges are another focus of the CPE program, with a particular focus on encouraging athletes with disabilities and women athletes. Exchanges built on sports activities have a long history between the United States and China, said Cynthia Gire, who heads the SportsUnited program within the State Department.

Each nation sent its championship ping-pong team to the other country in the 1970s, breaking a long period without official contact between the two nations. “Ping-Pong Diplomacy,” conducted citizen to citizen, opened the door for then-President Richard Nixon to travel to China, resulting in a thaw in Cold War relations.

Exchanges of athletes playing basketball and soccer is a current important focus, Gire said. In keeping with that theme, Liu planned to attend a November 18 professional basketball game between the Chicago Bulls and the Charlotte Bobcats.