According to Hong Kong's "South China Morning Post" on November 30, U.S. Ambassador to China Burns said that China and the United States must resume people-to-people exchanges at all levels to prevent the delicate relationship between the two sides from "going off the rails again."
According to the report, Burns attended a meeting between China and Biden in San Francisco in November. He said it was important for the two sides to discuss core issues that involved their respective interests, and that it was important for the two leaders to commit to expanding people-to-people exchanges.
In an exclusive interview with the South China Morning Post, Burns said: "People-to-people exchanges are the ballast stone for maintaining the stability of the relationship between the two countries. There are competitive, contentious relations between our two countries, but it is very important that we keep in touch at the people-to-people level. ”
In November 2022, the president and Biden agreed to develop a "constructive relationship" during a face-to-face meeting in Bali, Indonesia, the report said. This year's meeting between the two leaders in San Francisco is widely seen as the biggest guardrail to prevent further decline in bilateral relations.
"It's important that we maintain the momentum after the San Francisco meeting so that we don't go off the rails again," Burns said. The key is to maintain close communication between the two countries** and the high-level**. ”
Burns said that while maintaining official channels is crucial, personnel exchanges are key.
He said the pandemic has drastically reduced people-to-people contacts at all levels.
The two countries agreed to significantly increase direct flights from next year to facilitate travel and business.
"Before COVID, we had a total of 345 flights a week," Burns said. That number once dropped to 12, and now it is 70. ”
In 2022, the number of Chinese students enrolled in the U.S. fell below 300,000, up from nearly 500,000 a year, according to the Institute of International Education.
Burns said there are significantly fewer American students in China today than there were before the pandemic. "We can't let the next generation of American students not understand China and don't speak Mandarin," he said. Otherwise, we will feel the consequences in twenty or thirty years. We need more young people to learn about China. We need experts on China. (Compiled by Zhao Feifei).