Ambassadors discuss US-China relations

Chinese ambassadors discussed the current state of foreign policy and China’s relationship with other parts of the world on Wednesday at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.

The USC U.S.-China Institute hosted three prominent diplomats from China: former ambassador to Nigeria and Sweden Lu Fengding, former ambassador to Turkey and Canada Mei Ping and Zhou Gang, who served as the ambassador to Malaysia, Pakistan, Indonesia and India.

The ambassadors discussed the betterment of the major bilateral relationship between the United States and China.

The connection is particularly monetary in terms of scale: together, both the United States and China occupy one-third of the world’s economy and one-fifth of the world’s international trade.

“There is a need to explore ways that yield a new type of a major power relationship with the United States,” Mei said. “The old relationship was full of rivalry, which has led to world wars and one cold war. China wants to break this old type of relationship in order to construct a new relationship featured by mutual cooperation.”

The primary goal of the three former Chinese ambassadors’ trip was to continue China’s public diplomacy. The ambassadors said they wanted to strengthen mutual understanding between Americans and Chinese.

The ambassadors said they wanted to improve relations between the two countries by focusing on economic, environmental and political issues because the world is a more interdependent place.

“We are here to exchange ideas and questions, especially the question about the means and ways to further improve our relationship,” Lu said. “The two sides are very interested in trying to look at what kind of relationship we should manage, and how to further proceed it in a better, open-minded and objective way.”

Students who attended the discussion were interested in hearing about environmental , economical and political  issues from the ambassadors’ perspectives.

“All of these are very familiar issues, and it was interesting to see it from the Chinese perspective,” said Anja Kong, a freshman majoring in international relations (global business).

Charlene Tran, a sophomore majoring in business administration and international relations (global business) found the discussion to be a learning experience.

“Hearing from [the ambassadors] has actually opened my ears as to how I should look at issues differently,” Tran said. “It’s quite interesting to see and understand the Chinese perspective about their relationship with us.”

The ambassadors placed an especially strong emphasis on the importance of exchange students, especially between the United States and China.

USC enrolls more international students than any university in the country, and the ambassadors believe the growing number of USC students from China only enhances the learning environment.

“We think the exchange of students is very important for the future of our students,” Lu said. “Our future relations have a very good foundation to live from.”

The bonds developed among students from all parts of the world will have an impact that lasts past college, Zhou said.

“We hope this kind of dialogue of public diplomacy will help strengthen mutual respect and understanding among Chinese and American people, especially under the younger generation,” Zhou said.