Celebrating 40 years of education exchange

China's ambassador to the US, who once was a graduate student in Washington, detailed the benefits of educational exchanges between the two countries over the past 40 years at a celebratory event Thursday.

"With direct engagement with Chinese students, American professors and schoolmates also got to know better about a real China and developed a growing interest in this ancient civilization on the other side of the world," said Cui, who once attended the School of Advanced International Studies at John Hopkins University.

Cui also reminisced how in 1978, right after Christmas, 52 Chinese scholars — the first group of Chinese to study in the US since 1949 — arrived in New York.

Cui was joined Thursday at the Chinese embassy in Washington by Chinese and Americans who took part in the educational exchanges over the past four decades.

Caroline Casagrande, deputy assistant secretary for academic programs in the US State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA), said alumni of the US and China exchanges "continue to connect and work together on important goals, including academic collaboration to find and share the solutions to common challenges (and) empower communities to create the opportunities for the next generation".

"I always believe friendship and cooperation are and will always be the mainstream, as they are in the fundamental interests of the people," Cui said. "The people are the makers of history, and they are the driving force for China-US relations.

"At a time of difficulties, it is all the more important for the people not to turn against each other, or on each other, but towards each other. It is all the more important to step up exchanges and engagement and build up mutual understanding and trust. And this is the essence of student exchanges," said Cui.

The panelists shared their observations over the recently raised suspicions about Chinese students and scholars by the US government.

Madelyn Ross, associate director of China studies and executive director of SAIS China, said she was sorry to see "political controversy" over studies abroad and student exchanges between the two countries.

"I think that's a really big mistake," she said. "I hope that those of us who've been part of the exchanges and know the benefits that (they) brought to these two countries will take the opportunity to continue to speak out to audiences that are less educated than this current audience is," said Ross, who studied in China in 1979.

John V. Grobowski, who was one of eight American students who studied in China that year, said he believes there is "a period of slowdown right at this moment".

"But I think this is just a temporary pause and won't continue. And for this kind of process to succeed, it's really important that you have as many people as possible who understand the culture of the other countries," he said,

Mary Millben, American singer and actress, who has performed for three consecutive US Presidents, for the first time sang the National Anthem of China in Chinese. Millben's interest in China started in 2006 when she traveled there as an exchange student.

Former US president Jimmy Carter, in a letter sent to the embassy, wrote: "The academic and scientific exchange between our countries is an important way to create a better understanding of one another while also advancing our collective knowledge about nature, life and climate."

Liu Yawei, director of the China Program at the Carter Center in Atlanta, arrived in the US to study at the University of Hawaii in the 1980s.

"We are mirrors, not just bridges. We are actually reflecting each other's greatest achievements, various values and most acute concerns for global peace and prosperity," Liu said.

Yi Zong in Washington contributed to this story.