Secretary Antony J. Blinken At a Discussion with NYU Shanghai Students – United States Department of State

Secretary Blinken: Again, thank you very much. It’s great to be with you all this morning. I really intended to come here to have a chance to talk to each of you, to hear what you have to say, because I think what you’re engaged in is very important for the future of both our countries and the relationship between us. Is. Whether you’re Chinese, whether you’re American, I think you know that this relationship between China and the United States is one of the most consequential, one of the most complex in the world.

But where the balance really comes in, where we can make sure that we’re talking to each other, listening to each other, understanding each other, it’s really about students, the business community, All comes through relationships between citizens – but especially with students, Americans studying in China, Chinese students studying in the United States, getting to know each other’s countries, getting to know each other. Are. This is really the best way to ensure that we start by understanding each other hopefully, and it is an important way of ensuring that we avoid miscommunications and misconceptions, and even where we There are deep differences, we can find ways to improve – and, I hope, build things together, build collaborations together.

President Biden, President Xi are committed to strengthening our people-to-people ties, including educational exchanges. We have about 300,000 Chinese students in the United States, and this is something we support very much. I think last year we had over 100,000 new visa (inaudible) students studying in the United States. Here, unfortunately, we’ve gone from about 15,000 students – Americans – a decade ago to about 800 now, and we’ve actually bottomed out at about 300 – because of COVID and other reasons. We would like to strengthen that again, because, again, I think it’s very important to build these relationships. Of course, we want to have as welcoming an environment as possible so that our students feel welcome here, just as we want to make sure that Chinese students feel welcome in the United States.

So for me, getting the chance to hear from you about what this experience has been like – what you’re learning from it, how we can do more to support this – makes a huge difference. And then finally, I saw this show; This is truly extraordinary. I know that people who have graduated from the program have done incredible things. In fact, we have some people who joined the Foreign Service and are with us today. (Applause.)

And that also gives me tremendous hope for the future, because one thing I want to make sure is that, in both our countries, we are developing and we have emerging generations that know each other. , who know about each other, and hopefully, who understand each other. And that’s the best way to ensure that we are managing this relationship between our countries responsibly, effectively and for the good of people not only in our countries but around the world. (Inaudible) It’s great to be with you. Mostly I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you. (Applause.)