At the invitation of the Chinese Association for International Understanding (CAFIU), a 17-member delegation of friendly people from the political circle, NGOs, think tanks and media of Bangladesh, Nepal, Indonesia, the Philippines and Brunei visited China during July 19 and 28. The members of the delegation were either old friends or new acquaintances of China, and therefore all boasted a lot of close links with China. During their visit in Beijing and Yunnan, they enjoyed a tight and colorful agenda. Thanks to these arrangements, the delegation eliminated their questions on China-related issues, renewed their knowledge about China and upgraded their thinking on China.

 

Beijing: Friendship between the Peoples Contributed to State-to-State Relations

 

During their visit in Beijing, Ai Ping, Vice-President of CAFIU met with the delegation and CAFIU Deputy Secretary-General Liu Kaiyang had an in-depth exchange with the delegation on related issues. Two experts respectively from China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations and Chinese Academy of Governance made open and honest exchange with delegation members on themes of “the maritime strategy of China and its neighborhood foreign policy” and “the 13th five-year plan and China’s reform”. In addition, the delegation visited Beijing Planning Exhibition Hall and Capital Museum.

 

At the time they arrived in China, Beijing was windy and raining, and dispute on the so-called South China Sea arbitration was in its peak. On the next day, Philippino MP Vicario told the Chinese staff in a private occasion that before their departure, the Philippino media misled people’s opinion and caught people’s attention by hyping the issue and they even suspected whether their visit would be influenced. However, just staying one day in China, they’ve felt the self-restraint, open and friendly attitude of China on South China Sea issue and the friendly atmosphere among Chinese people to the Philippines, thus warming their heart. They told the Chinese staff that on the previous evening, they were stricken in the heavy rain in Beijing and a warm-hearted Chinese girl spontaneously helped them by calling a taxi sending them back to the hotel via her mobile APP and paid for them. The girl’s behavior deeply moved these Philippine MPs and they expressed their wish to contribute to the understanding between peoples of two countries and bilateral young people exchanges.

 

To people like Mr. Poempida from Indonesia Chamber of Commerce, Mi phones served as a folk ambassador bridging the people of China and Indonesia. In the face-to-face exchange, when talked about the scientific advancement of China, Mr. Poempida showed and introduced to the audience his Mi phone. He said that Mi phones was a well-known brand in Indonesia and has therefore eliminated the prejudice of many Indonesian people on the quality and technology of Chinese products. He even served as the voluntary promoter of Mi phones among his friends and at the same time strove to bridge the trade and commercial exchange between China and Indonesia.

 

Kunming: Direct Experience Boosted Mutual Understanding

 

In Yunnan Province, Zhou Hong, Director of Yunnan Provincial Office of Foreign Affairs met with the delegation and introduced to them the social and economic situation of Yunnan. The delegation exchanged with Department of Commerce of Yunnan Province and Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences on issues such as coopertation between neighboring countries and Yunnan Province, the implementation of “Belt and Road” initiative in the region, visited Yunnan Provincial Energy Investment Group Co., Ltd, and investigated Xihua Village of Xishan District, Kunming-a provincial demonstrating site of new rural construction.

 

As many members of the delegation were scholars from think tanks or research institutes, the exchange with Chinese experts from Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences became an important event of their schedule in Yunnan. General A N M Muniruzzaman, head of the delegation, was the President of Institute of Peace and Security of Bangladesh. As soon as he arrived at Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences, he embraced warmly with a Chinese professor, which made other Chinese staff looked like guests. The Chinese professor explained that as both of them have worked for a long time in the field of research on neighboring countries, they were old friends with many scholars of other countries. In the two-hour exchange, delegation members vied in raising questions and were eager to listen to “Chinese voice” and “Chinese story” closely. After the seminar, delegation members said that via the exchange with scholars from think tanks of Yunnan, they kept up with the mind of Chinese people and benefited a lot.

 

The visit to Xihua village was specially arranged in this tour for the delegates to learn about a different China at the grassroot level. Xihua village located in Xishan District of Kunming, and was a beautiful village near downtown Kunming with a convenient transportation. When we arrived at the village, the secretary of the village guided the delegates to visit the neighborhoods and fields, looked at the village appearances, infrastructure, and dinstictive industries, elaborated the issues such as targeted poverty alleviation, compulsory education and village meeting system, thus making the visit a fruitful grassroot investigation.

 

The delegation stayed in China for ten days and enjoyed a tight schedule. Before leaving China, the delegates said in the airport that they will bring their experience and feelings in China as well as the good wishes of Chinese people back to their home and continue to make their contribution to the friendship between China and their mother country.

 

Looking back to our job in the past years, five years have passed since the first delegation of friendly people from neighboring countries organized by CAFIU visited China in 2012. In the past five years, we’ve visited more than ten provinces and municipalities such as Shanghai, Guangdong, Fujian, Sichuan and Yunnan with these delegations and made friends with nearly 100 friendly people from neighboring countries. On their different fields and positions, these people were making and will still make contribution to people’s understanding on China and bilateral practical cooperation between China and their mother countries. We hope in the next five years, more and more new friends will take part in this team.