Exchanges: Sino-US ties 'standing at a new crossroads'

Wednesday, the first day of 2025, marked not only the 46th anniversary of the establishment of China-United States diplomatic ties, but also the start of a year that will see celebrations of the 80th anniversary of the victory in the World Anti-Fascist War, which ended in 1945.

Friendly people from all walks of life in China and the US told China Daily that through the flames of World War II, the militaries and civilians of these two victorious countries, including US Flying Tigers aviation veterans, formed a deep bond, and that it is imperative to carry on their great legacy in this special year.

In addition, they said, it is necessary to further sow the seeds of friendship among the younger generations of both nations this year and expand cultural exchanges as much as possible. 

Lu Kang, vice-minister of the International Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, mentioned a World War II concentration camp that had been run by the Japanese military in China, saying that it stood as testimony to "the history of the Chinese and American people sharing weal and woes and helping each other".

At a forum in Beijing last month, Lu recalled that more than three months before, he was in Weifang, Shandong province, with foreign friends, and they visited the Weihsien West Civilians Concentration Camp Site Museum. 

In World War II, Japanese invaders used the camp to detain more than 2,000 expatriates, including more than 300 children, from countries such as the US, Britain and Canada.

"During that time, the local Chinese residents risked their lives to bring food and medicine to the detained expatriates, relayed messages to them and helped them try to escape," Lu said.

Among the expatriates was a young American in his 20s who managed to escape with the help of local guerrillas and joined the Chinese armed forces in the fight against Japanese fascism.

"This young man's name was Arthur William Hummel. Forty years later, he became the second US ambassador to the People's Republic of China," Lu said.

It was during Hummel's ambassadorship that the two governments reached and issued their third joint communique in 1982, he noted.

That part of history about the camp "has become a vivid portrayal of the deep friendship between the Chinese and American people", he said.

"China-US relations are standing at a new crossroads, but no matter how the situation changes, China's wish to carry forward the friendship between the peoples of China and the US has never changed, and will never change," Lu added.

Jeffrey Greene, chairman of the Sino-American Aviation Heritage Foundation, is another keen supporter of subnational friendship and youth exchanges between the two nations. 

In 2023, President Xi Jinping wrote a letter in reply to Greene and Flying Tigers veterans Harry Moyer and Mel McMullen.

Xi endorsed the China-US wartime friendship and expressed his hope that the spirit of the Flying Tigers can be passed down from generation to generation.

Greene said that "feihu, 'a tiger who flies', cannot be defeated and is immortal", so Flying Tigers became the name that the Chinese people gave to the group of volunteer US pilots who came to China in 1941 and stood shoulder to shoulder with the Chinese people to fight the invading Japanese troops.

On Monday, Greene led a delegation to Zhongshan, Guangdong province, where they visited Yang Xianyi High School of Zhongshan, which was founded in 1925 and named for a pioneer of China's air force.

Regarding his foundation's Flying Tiger Friendship School program, Greene said, "We are bringing 200 American schoolkids to China."

He noted that the program now features 63 Chinese schools and 26 US schools, "so this is a program that's going to expand as long as we can keep them going". Communication and exchange are key concepts of the program, he added.

Greene also visited Pandas Heritage Stadium in Zhongshan, where he was amazed by the baseball field and hummed the American song Take Me Out to the Ball Game.

"When we bring our students here, we bring them to this baseball field. Maybe they can play a softball game, or even a hardball game, you know, for fun," he said. "It's another opportunity for Americans and Chinese to share something." 

Shen Xin, vice-president of the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, said his association will invite living Flying Tigers veterans, descendants of Flying Tigers members and representatives of Flying Tigers friendship organizations to visit China and hold commemorative events this year.

"We will revisit the history of the Chinese and American people fighting shoulder to shoulder, pass on the traditional friendship, tighten the two peoples' bond, enhance heart-to-heart contacts, and inject more warmth and momentum into the healthy and stable development of China-US relations," he said.

Hailing the program proposed by President Xi in 2023 to invite 50,000 young Americans to China on exchange and study programs over the course of five years, Shen emphasized the need to consistently gather dynamism from young people for China-US friendship.

"There surely is hope for China-US ties as long as the younger generation gets along with each other amicably," he added.

This year, his association will continue working with localities in China and invite more young Americans to visit China through channels such as sister provinces/states and sister cities and "to open more windows for them to perceive and understand China", Shen said.