China, US to encourage more bilateral educational exchanges

Chinese graduates are pictured during the Commencement ceremony of the 262nd Academic Year of Columbia University in New York, on May 18, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

WASHINGTON - China and the United States will further promote two-way overseas study and enhance bilateral exchanges among educational institutions and scholars, according to a joint statement released in Washington on Thursday.

The new moves are intended to increase mutual understanding and promote bilateral people-to-people exchanges, said the statement released after the first China-US social and people-to-people dialogue was held here on Thursday.

According to the action plan of the dialogue, the two sides will adopt a "double 100,000" two-way overseas study plan, which will allow China to send 100,000 government-sponsored people to study in the United States and permit 100,000 US students to study in China in the following four years.

Besides, China will provide 10,000 scholarships in the coming four years to encourage excellent US students to study in China on a short-term basis, according to the plan.

The United States will continue to implement the Fulbright scholarship program, a US flagship academic exchange program.

The action plan also mentioned that the China-US Youth Innovation Center will be set up in the two countries to boost youth exchanges and cooperation between the two countries, which will also hold dialogues between Chinese and US universities and think tanks to further increase intellectual communication.

"I hope young people in both China and the United States would be the main driver of innovation development and the vanguards of bilateral cultural exchanges, injecting positive energy into the two countries' ties," said Vice-Premier Liu Yandong while addressing a sideline event of the dialogue in New York on Monday.

Liu co-chaired the first China-US social and people-to-people dialogue with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

The dialogue is one of the four high-level dialogues established during the Mar-a-Lago meeting between President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart, Donald Trump, in the southeastern US state of Florida in April.