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A Concerto of Cultural Mutual-learning: Side Notes on the 1st China-US-Europe Young Leaders Exchange Program


Ma Jingjing From October 14 to 23, 2014, CAFIU successfully hosted the 1st China-US-Europe Young Leaders Exchange Program. Targeted at young leaders from China, the US and Europe with a focus on political, economic and cultural exchanges, this program has selected Beijing and Guangdong to make field visits in the forms of themed talks, discussions, study tours, etc. While enhancing the understanding of young US and European leaders on China, the program also offers us an opportunity to know more of the talented next generation of Europe and the US. In Beijing, CAFIU Vice-President Ye Xiaowen met the young leaders and had comprehensive and in-depth discussions with them on China’s political system, development path and development concept. CAFIU also arranged two workshops and one seminar, encouraging young leaders from China, the US, France, Germany and the UK to speak out their minds for improved mutual understanding. In Jieyang of Guangdong Province, the young leaders attended a meeting on New Environment-friendly Mode of Development, and had heated discussions with Mr. Chen Dong, Mayor of Jieyang and his colleagues on how to achieve win-win progress between economic development and environmental protection. During the 10-day program, young statesmen, entrepreneurs and think tank scholars attended all the events with great enthusiasm, forging new understanding on China’s development and international cooperation and harvesting sincere friendship and sound memories. As a staff member and program coordinator of CAFIU, I was lucky to be able to participate in the entire program. When looking back, I feel like having enjoyed a concerto of cultural mutual-learning. Understanding China in A Comprehensive, Objective and Down-to-earth Manner For most foreign participants of the program, this is their first China visit. Although they had learnt something about China before, they lacked a systematic understanding on China’s national conditions, political system, economic development mode, etc, and had some prejudice and misunderstanding on some major issues. Therefore, CAFIU arranged two workshops respectively on China’s Political System and Multi-party Cooperation and CPC’s Governing Concept and China’s Development Path, and hosted a seminar on China and the World in My Eyes. The field visits were designed to introduce the young leaders to the daily life of people, as well as the status quo of economic development, so as to enhance their concrete understanding of China’s economic and social development. In Jieyang, the young leaders paid a visit to China-Germany Metal Eco city and planted friendship trees in China-Germany Forest Park. They said that the trees they have planted would link themselves with the future of the Eco city. What’s special about the program is that we have invited four Chinese young leaders from various fields to participate in the entire program. This is also the first time for CAFIU to design a program in this way, which has received positive feedback from both Chinese and overseas participants. According to the overseas participants, the workshops helped them understand China from a general perspective, while the “Bus Q&A” enhanced their understanding about China from a fresh, comprehensive and practical way. The “Bus Q&A” they mentioned was the kind of discussions the participants have in the bus. The topics were of common interest for both Chinese and overseas participants, from international and regional issues to birth control policy and study overseas. The wide-ranging topics and easy atmosphere promoted mutual understanding between both sides. The four young Chinese leaders including some CAFIU council members came from various backgrounds such as the political, business and academic sectors. During the ten days, they tried their best to give in-depth explanation to the topics interesting to the overseas participants. In this way, they fully communicated with each other and developed sound friendship towards each other, which had laid a solid foundation for long-term and solid partnership in the future. Viewing the World in An Inclusive, Cooperative and Development-oriented Way In designing the topics for discussions and field visits, we gave consideration of the characteristics of the young people who are usually active and creative, and tried to lead the discussions in a democratic and open-minded manner. The two workshops were presided over by two Chinese participants respectively. As the presentation makers of the workshops and participants of the program, they not only introduced the general situation of relevant fields, but also encouraged interactions, mutual learning and self-improvement. At the seminar in Beijing and the meeting in Jieyang, the Chinese and overseas participants had frank and in-depth discussions. The French representative pointed out that China had received considerable FDI since the adoption of reform and opening-up. But at present China also saw huge growth in its overseas investment thanks to the active Chinese enterprises in the overseas market. The need to “Go Global” raised higher demand on the various aspects of China’s economic development, and also called for more publicity among the European and American audience. It was believed that a better international image of China would help dissolve the suspicions among the western people. On environmental protection, an issue of common concern, the UK representative introduced some practice of London in tackling air pollution, such as creating a green belt around the city, developing public transportation, promoting the use of new energy and encouraging rational consumption according to the rule of the market. One US representative emphasized the important role of community and voluntary organizations in environmental monitoring and management, suggesting that the interaction between the government and such entities should be strengthened so as to improve the environment with joint efforts. Many representatives said that with more progress in the division of labor in international market, some labor-intensive and pollutant industries were moved to the developing world, which negatively affected local environment and human activities. Recently some parts of China had been hit by serious and frequent environmental problems. But the responsibility lay not only with China, and the influence of such problems also went beyond the border of China. People across the world should enhance their sense of responsibility, strengthen coordination and cooperation, and make concrete efforts to protect our common homeland. Cultural Mutual-learning: the responsibility of the young people The foreign participants in the program are young congressmen, think tank scholars and NGO representatives. Young as they are, they have shown their talents, leadership and good behavior. They said that they were deeply impressed by this China visit, especially for the cultural events. They tasted the essence of harmony in the Chinese culture, and felt much closer to China and the Chinese culture. At the meeting, Vice President Ye gave an improvised cello performance of some traditional Chinese music, and smartly explained the Chinese ethnic and religious policies with Wild Goose, a traditional Chinese folk song. His simple and humorous words and sensible arguments left deep impressions on the minds of both the Chinese and overseas participants. In Lingguang Temple of Badachu Park, Rabbi Changzang met the delegation and explained the influence of the Buddhist culture in China and Asia, as well as how Buddhism helped with international exchanges. In the 10-day program, many overseas participants had been fascinated by the Chinese language and characters, and some even learnt how to write their names and their country’s names in Chinese. They thought that the Chinese culture was sophisticated and China was making increasing progress, and their understanding of China became more positive thanks to this visit. They were more than willing to share what they had seen and heard with their friends at home. They hoped that CAFIU would continue with such a program to invite more participants, so as to enhance mutual understanding and cooperation among young leaders from China, the US and Europe. Before the end of the visit, all the participants went up to Guangzhou Tower to have a bird view of Guangzhou. The German representative talked about the Chinese calligraphy we saw the day before which goes “If you want to see further, you need to go higher to the next floor”. He said that this China-US-Europe Young Leaders program had built a high-level platform promoting understanding and cooperation, by which they could deepen their understanding about China in a comprehensive and objective way, explore new channels to conduct cooperation with China, and make acquaintance with young leaders from other countries to learn from and share with each other. This would prove to be precious for the rest of their life. This China visit raised them up to a higher level and expanded their horizons, and would surely exert more and deeper influence in the future.