BEIJING: On the invitation of U.S. President Joe Biden, Chinese language President Xi Jinping has arrived in San Francisco on Tuesday for a China-U.S. summit and the thirtieth Asia-Pacific Financial Cooperation (APEC) Financial Leaders’ Assembly.
The go to to San Francisco marks Xi’s return to the US after six-plus years and in addition signifies one other face-to-face assembly between the 2 heads of state following final yr’s handshake in Bali, Indonesia.
Eight years in the past, in a speech on China-U.S. relations at a welcoming dinner hosted by native governments and organizations in Seattle, the US, Xi stated, “We should foster pleasant sentiments amongst our peoples. Individuals-to-people relations underpin state-to-state relations.”
“The muse of China-U.S. relations lies among the many folks, the hope is within the folks,” Xi reiterated throughout his assembly with California governor Gavin Newsom final month.
With the upcoming Xi-Biden summit, China has as soon as once more prolonged the hand of friendship towards the opposite aspect of the Pacific.
FROM BEIJING TO SAN FRANCISCO
San Francisco is the primary U.S. metropolis that was straight reached by a Chinese language business flight. On Jan. 7, 1981, a Boeing 747SP massive passenger plane flew over the Pacific Ocean, turning into the primary flight between China and the US linking Beijing, Shanghai, San Francisco, and New York.
Over the previous 42 years, busy flights have witnessed more and more shut connections between China and the US.
Earlier this month, Air China and United Airways successively resumed direct flights between Beijing and San Francisco, signaling improved relations between the 2 sides.
On the San Francisco Worldwide Airport, Roger Jansen, a retired American photojournalist who had simply concluded his journey to China, was wanting to share his journey expertise.
He stated he traveled to Shanghai and Beijing on China’s high-speed bullet prepare, and loved good meals. “All people was pleasant and good. You understand we must always all get collectively. Not that struggle and feud.”
Dennis Simon, a distinguished fellow of the Institute for China-America Research, can be paying shut consideration to the upcoming summit.
“They positively have a really advanced agenda that the 2 males are going to have to handle. However firstly, they’re going to have to determine a strategy to stabilize the connection,” he stated in a current interview with Xinhua.
“It’s incumbent upon each international locations and the leaders to discover a pathway ahead to scale back tensions and to make it worthwhile for the citizenry in each international locations to learn from the engagement between the 2 governments,” he stated.
“I’m a giant believer in people-to-people diplomacy. I feel if we have a look at the final 40-plus years of U.S.-China relations, the people-to-people dimension has grown far past what anybody would have imagined,” stated Simon, who has over 40 years of expertise finding out and dealing in China.
MUSIC AS BRIDGE
Simply because the Golden Gate Bridge spans throughout San Francisco Bay, facilitating connectivity amongst native residents, music has acted as a “bridge” between China and the US.
Fifty years in the past, the Philadelphia orchestra got here to China, an ice-breaking journey of cultural exchanges between the 2 international locations.
5 a long time later, the orchestra carried out in Beijing with the China Nationwide Symphony Orchestra alongside vocalists from numerous international locations, collectively creating harmonious symphonies throughout its ongoing thirteenth go to to China.
Xi, in his reply to a letter from Matias Tarnopolsky, president and CEO of the orchestra, stated that he hopes the orchestra and artists from China, the US and different international locations will proceed their efforts to strengthen people-to-people ties between China and the US and unfold friendship amongst peoples of the world.
Valuing the orchestra’s half-century bond with China, Tarnopolsky stated he hopes to see the connection proceed to develop and flourish.
“Cultural change is basically vital as a path to understanding between peoples,” stated Tarnopolsky. “Music connects us all, be it throughout geographic boundaries, languages, cultures and centuries.”
Davyd Sales space, a violinist and one of many members of the 1973 journey who nonetheless performs within the orchestra, stated the tour 50 years in the past was “one of the crucial vital occasions” in his life.
“I feel we are able to present folks that there’s optimistic hope for everybody in every single place,” stated the 73-year-old violinist. “Music is a common language. It’s the most summary artwork kind that may contact folks and turn into a bridge to attach us.”
FUTURE ROOTS IN YOUTH
Throughout his go to to Lincoln Excessive Faculty in 2015, Xi invited the scholars to go to China, saying, “By way of journey, you’ll know China higher, and hopefully you’ll like China.”
One yr later, a delegation of scholars and academics from Lincoln Excessive Faculty visited Chinese language cities together with Fuzhou, Chengdu and Beijing.
Recalling the present of journey for his college students from Xi, former Lincoln Excessive Faculty Principal Patrick Erwin stated that college students will cleared the path to raised relationships between our international locations.
“College students are the voice of the longer term, and the extra they will go to one another, the higher the probabilities we can have profitable futures,” he stated.
Through the years, Xi has positioned important emphasis on fostering real interactions among the many youth between the 2 sides, sowing the seeds of friendship of their hearts, nurturing future ambassadors of goodwill and constructing bridges for future China-U.S. friendship.
Earlier this month, 23 U.S. school college students skilled a five-day China Schooling Tour organized by Southwest Jiaotong College in China’s Sichuan Province.
Tor Parsons, a scholar from Lewis & Clark Faculty, stated that he want to submit about his expertise on social media to let extra younger Individuals find out about China.
“I hope my college students can acquire a deeper understanding of all features of China,” stated Drew Kunard, the director of the journey.
“By way of the exchanges, the friendship between the younger folks of China and the US has grown, and the understanding and respect for one another have deepened,” stated David Chong, founder and president of the U.S.-China Youth and Pupil Alternate Affiliation.
As Xi pressured in his reply letter to the U.S.-China Youth and Pupil Alternate Affiliation, “the hope and basis of the China-U.S. relationship lie within the folks, and its future lies within the youths.”