On the afternoon of October 13, the International Symposium on Telling Good Stories of Sino-Foreign Academic Exchanges and Deepening International Exchange and Cooperation in the New Era was held in the Auditorium on the 8th Floor of Zhiyuan Building, CULR on the occasion of celebrating the 75th anniversary of CULR. Nie Shengkui, Director of the Department of Foreign Expert Service of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, Michael Crook, Chairman of the International Committee for the Promotion of Chinese Industrial Cooperatives, Liu Xiangbing, Secretary of the Party Committee of CULR and Li Ke, Vice President of CULR attended the symposium. The event was also attended by leaders and experts from many universities and institutions both at home and abroad including the members of Yanhe Collegiate League of Talent Cultivation such as Renmin University of China, Beijing Institute of Technology, China Agricultural University, and Minzu University of China, Keele University, Belarusian International University MITSO, City University of Macau, China Academy of Agricultural Mechanization Sciences, Science and Technology Daily, and China Foreign Languages Publishing Administration. The opening ceremony was moderated by Vice President Li Ke.
Secretary Liu Xiangbing stated in his speech that the theme of the symposium is closely aligned with the spirits of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee and the themes of the times, and responds to the requirements on higher-level openness of education. The symposium shares the touching stories of those who have made significant contributions to enhancing international understanding and cooperation, facilitating Sino-foreign academic exchanges and building a community with a shared future for mankind. It is of great importance for further deepening international cooperation and exchanges, consolidating international understanding and friendship, and forming common consensus on building a community with a shared future for mankind. CULR will seize the opportunity of China's high-level educational openness, endeavor to be a globally leading university in serving trade union diplomacy, give full play to its disciplinary advantages of "trade union plus" and "labor plus", and keep improving the levels of international talents cultivation, teaching force development and academic research, so as to make greater efforts and contributions on building a domestically top-tier and internationally leading characteristic university in the fields of labor and trade union when celebrating its 80th anniversary five years later.
Director Nie Shengkui expressed sincere congratulations to CULR's 75th anniversary and fully affirmed the positive significance of the symposium. He noted that foreign experts are witnesses and participants of Sino-foreign academic exchanges. During various periods of China's revolution and construction, countless foreign experts worked closely with the Chinese people to make extraordinary contributions to China's modernization cause. By reviewing their impressive stories of academic exchanges with China, we affectionately recall those uncommon experiences and actively learn from excellent civilizations around the world. These small stories showcase grand spirits. Not forgetting history, we should continue to explore and disseminate more good stories of Sino-foreign friendly exchanges with extraordinary warmth, height and style, allowing more foreign experts and friends to be shining stars of the Chinese nation in pursuit of national prosperity and strength.
The keynote speech session was moderated by Xu Yanli, Director of CULR's Office of International Exchanges and Cooperation (Office of Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan Affairs), and eleven experts and scholars from domestic and foreign universities and organizations delivered keynote speeches. Antonius Raghubansie, Vice Chancellor of the British Keele University reviewed the significant contributions of Lord Michael Lindsay to the building of the P.R.C., Sino-British friendship and global peace. Wang Xuejun, Researcher of the University History Research Office of Renmin University of China shared the historical contributions of Lord Michael Lindsay to the educational operation of North China Associated University. Michael Crook, Chairman of the International Committee for the Promotion of Chinese Industrial Cooperatives, introduced the evolvement of the committee and shared the heartwarming stories of his mother Isabel Crook (a winner of Friendship Medal, China's top-ranked honor for foreigners). Zhang Dun, Director of Academic Affairs at the Beijing Agricultural Machinery Test Station, CAMMS recalled the outstanding contributions of American experts Erwin Engst and Joan Hinton to the mechanization of cow breeding and improvement of cow variety improvement. Li Ke, Vice President of CULR, told the stories of nine former Soviet experts who assisted in the construction of the cadre school of All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) during the early days of CULR. Xu Qingqun, Director of the Local Journalism Department of Science and Technology Daily, gave viewpoints about focusing on the important instruction of Chinese President Xi Jinping on "attracting the brightest minds from around the world", building a foreign experts team telling good Chinese stories, and the responsibilities of universities of opening-up to the outside world and international cooperation. Elsbeth van Paridon, a foreign expert at the American Communication Center under China Foreign Languages Publishing Administration shared her stories of working and communicating in China as a Dutch sinologist and journalist. Professor Liu Zhibing from Beijing Institute of Technology explained BIT's basic conditions of international education and teaching, and the implementation of international programs in the new era. Professor Li Li from China Agricultural University presented the stories of South-South Cooperation in China-Africa poverty reduction by agriculture. Professor Yuan Mei from Minzu University of China shared MUC's successful practices of promoting Chinese education solutions and inspiring the original educational thought in light of the actual conditions of China. Kong Fanqing, Vice Rector of City University of Macau reviewed the history and results of cooperation with CULR, and looked ahead towards the intercollegiate resource sharing and common development.
In the concluding remark, Secretary Liu Xiangbing commented that the international symposium reviewed the touching stories of Sino-foreign academic exchanges, and explored new paths of educational reform and opening-up for the new era featuring information connectivity, resource sharing, strength integration and collaborative innovation. "By knowing history, we can see farther; by truly understanding history, we can go farther." These valuable historical records of Sino-foreign academic exchanges serve as the new driver and indicate the direction more clearly for us to tell good stories in the new era, and expedite high-quality and internationalized education at a faster pace.
CULR's brochure of international student enrollment was officially published at the symposium, marking the formal start of the enrollment of international students, and further upgrading of the level and competency of CULR's educational openness to the outside world.
Witnessed by all the attending guests, the representative of Renmin University of China presented the book Universities in War as a gift to the representative of Keele University.