On January 28, 2024, the Chinese Embassy in the United States held an event in celebration of the 45th anniversary of China-U.S. student exchanges and the 2024 Spring Festival Gala for Chinese and American youths.

Ambassador Xie Feng pointed out in his remarks that over the past 45 years, China-U.S. educational cooperation has boomed rain or shine, leaving behind many beautiful stories, cultivating world-renowned scholars and leaders, and yielding research findings with far-reaching influence. Millions of students and families in both countries have benefited from it. Educational cooperation has always been a vivid example of our two peoples reaching out to each other, and one of the most productive areas of people-to-people exchanges. It has also laid a solid foundation for the stable development of the overall bilateral relationship.

Ambassador Xie said that educational cooperation epitomizes the win-win nature of China-U.S. relations. Today, there are nearly 290,000 Chinese students in the United States, accounting for about one-third of the total number of international students in the country. China has been the largest source of international students in the United States for 15 consecutive years. China-U.S. educational cooperation has not only supplied a wealth of talents to China’s modernization drive and boosted U.S. economy and scientific development, but also contributed to human progress as a whole.

Educational cooperation has also built bridges for mutual understanding and affinity between Chinese and American peoples. From sending students to each other’s country to jointly running schools, from academic exchanges to research collaboration, our two countries have established an all-dimensional, multi-tiered and all-sectoral educational cooperation framework, nurturing mutual understanding and friendship between the two peoples.