Youth diplomacy critical
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Yuri Kobashi is currently working hard on Chinese translation lessons in preparation to enjoy more opportunities when she returns to China.
After spending three years on a master's degree at Fudan University in Shanghai, the earnest 28-year-old Japanese student has focused her thesis on the subjects of public opinion and Sino-Japanese relations.
"My days in Shanghai have thoroughly changed my understanding of China, and I really want to promote the mutual understanding between people in the two countries," she said.
As China has attracted an estimated 240,000 international students in 2009 - and even more via short-term exchange programs - it is predictable that Kobashi's experience has echoed that of many others.
Most recently, politicians have been voicing hopes for people-to-people exchanges - especially among young people - to help improve bilateral relations that are either strained - or at least complicated.
To this end, Satsuki Eda, a close aide to Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan, is currently leading a 1,000-member youth group on an exchange program to China, as ties between Tokyo and Beijing are at their lowest point in recent years.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu emphasized the profound history of people-to-people exchanges between China and Japan, adding that this young delegation is helping "to enhance mutual understanding to lay a good social foundation for the healthy development of bilateral ties".
Also on Tuesday, US Ambassador Jon Huntsman stressed the role of the younger generation in shaping more positive US-China relations during a town hall meeting concerning current bilateral relations.
"Young kids in the US are going to be given more opportunity to study Mandarin - which I believe is a window to a foreign culture," said Huntsman.
"And for the younger generations I interacted with here in China - many of whom have been in various programs in the US - I have complete faith and confidence that they are given the complete right education, training to get this relationship right," Huntsman added.
In November 2009, US President Barack Obama first pledged to send 100,000 American students to China over the following four years to learn Mandarin for the sake of better promoting public diplomacy.
This May witnessed the formal launch of the US-China High-level Consultation on people-to-people exchanges, under the auspices of a series of meaningful programs that had been carried out.
These exchanges strongly resemble other established initiatives such as the US-China Fulbright program - one of the largest, most competitive scholarships of its kind - that has long since helped 2,500 Americans and Chinese students and scholars study, teach, and conduct research at each other's universities.
The 2010 Shanghai Expo has also attracted many foreign students to volunteer.
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