On September 2, the Asia-Pacific Civil Society Conference convened in Jinan under the theme “Reaffirming Commitment to Cooperation, Pooling Civil Society Strength, and Jointly Building an Asia-Pacific Community.” The conference was jointly hosted by the China NGO Network for International Exchanges (CNIE) and the Shandong Provincial People’s Government. More than 300 participants from 36 countries attended the conference in person, including political figures, experts and scholars, business representatives, heads of United Nations agencies, international organizations and non-governmental organizations, and representatives of relevant government departments. Wang Xuepeng, Vice President of Ocean University of China (OUC), attended the conference.
Sun Wenjie, a student from OUC’s College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, was invited to speak at a thematic session during the opening ceremony. She recounted her voyage aboard the “China-US Youth Friendship” vessel and shared stories of cross-cultural exchange between Chinese and US students. Sun noted that during the joint voyage, the Chinese and US students gained knowledge of marine scientific research while deepening their friendship and mutual trust. The participating students wrote to President Xi Jinping to share what they learned and experienced during the voyage, and President Xi replied with words of encouragement. Sun said that she would keep President Xi Jinping’s encouragement in mind and work with more aspiring young people from China and the US to foster mutual understanding between the two countries and strengthen people-to-people friendship across the Asia-Pacific.
