Quoting Lincoln, Liu ends DC visit

 

From top: Chinese Vice-Premier Liu Yandong presents an ancient Chinese vase to Marcia Fudge (second to left), congresswoman from Ohio and chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, with Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee from Texas (left), Morgan State University President David Wilson (fourth to right), and Congresswoman Terri Sewell from Alabama (third to right) looking on. Cai Chunying / China Daily Chinese Vice-Premier Liu Yandong is presented a Chicago Bulls jersey with her name on it on Monday by Rahm Emanuel, mayor of the American city, during an NBA game between the Chicago-based team and the Charlotte Bobcats. Hu Haidan / China Daily Chinese Vice-Premier Liu Yandong visits Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital in Chicago on Monday, on the first leg of her visit to the US. Hu Haidan / China Daily Chinese Vice-Premier Liu Yandong sits with Stephen Schwarzman (left), chairman and CEO of Blackstone Group, and Jim Marshall, president of the US Institute of Peace, where she delivered a speech on Thursday. Cai Chunying / China Daily

Chinese Vice-Premier Liu Yandong concluded her two-and-half day visit to Washington at the US Institute of Peace delivering a speech to think tank experts, university professors, visionary entrepreneurs, and local Chinese community leaders.

Knowing there was great interest among thought-leaders in the recent Third Plenum of the 18th Central Committee of the CPC, Liu offered a comprehensive briefing of the meeting, covering its key aspects.

Liu said the plenum "has raised the curtain on China's sweeping and profound reforms at a new starting point" and "such scope and intensity is unprecedented".

She stressed that the "priority of the reform is economic restructuring, and the core is to strike a balance between the roles of government and the market to make sure that the market plays a decisive role in allocation of resources, while bringing into better play the role of government".

Liu also went to great lengths in explaining the "Chinese Dream", the term used by Chinese President Xi Jinping to lay out the aspirations of the Chinese people and nation.

Liu said the Chinese Dream "embodies the common pursuit of the Chinese people since modern times" and "has much in common with the American dream" in that "they all cherish the same emotions and expectations and they all value the right to pursue a happy life".

Reflecting on the historic bond between people in the US and China, Liu told the story of US pilot William Findley being rescued by Chinese villagers in the 1940s and his thereafter life-long connection with China, one even passed down through his children.

"State-to-state relations in the final analysis are about relations between the people. It is the tiny streams of heart-to-heart communication between our people that cross the barrier of nationality, belief and culture, and provide nourishment for the towering tree of China-US friendship," Liu said.

Having led the High-Level Consultation on People-to-People Exchange for four years since its inception, Liu has much to share about her observations, actions, and visions on people-to-people exchange.

Liu defined people-to-people exchange as one of the three pillars underpinning the new model of major-country relations between China and the US, the other two being "political trust" and "business cooperation".

Being at the Institute of Peace, a US federal think tank, and addressing an audience consisting mainly of thought-leaders, Liu said she hoped that think tanks will extend their focus on such "hard areas" as power politics and geopolitical competition to include such "soft areas" as science, education, culture, social and people-to-people exchange.

Liu cited US president Abraham Lincoln, who, she said, best used and popularized the word "people" in political speech.

"A new model of major-country relationship and deeper people-to-people exchange between China and the US is, in the final analysis, of the people, by the people and for the people," Liu concluded, adding that they were not far from the Lincoln Memorial.

Liu was introduced by Stephen Schwarzman, chairman and CEO of Blackstone Group, a leading private-equity and investment firm. Schwarzman is creating a $300 million scholarship fund for study in China, named Schwarzman Scholars, to be housed in Tsinghua University to educate future leaders from the world to be well-versed in Chinese and global affairs through a one-year master program.

charlenecai@chinadailyusa.com

(China Daily USA 11/22/2013 page10)