President's visit a blast of fresh air

Xi's Chinese dream captures hearts, imagination in Europe

President Xi Jinping's visit to Europe is an opportune time for China to showcase its "new openness" in diplomatic initiatives, says Jorg Monar, rector of the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium.

The main objective of the trip, however, would be to foster more cultural exchanges and people-to-people exchanges between China and Europe, Monar says. Xi was expected to focus on EU-China relations in the keynote speech that he was to deliver at the College on April 1.

"We look forward to the visit of President Xi and his speech to the students. We see it as an opportunity to understand his thoughts on EU-China relations, and what should be the priorities."

The College of Europe is the oldest higher-education institution specializing in European affairs. It was established in 1949, the same year that the People's Republic of China was established.

The rector says that the president's trip to Europe would be an important milestone in EU-China relations.

"President Xi has already shown that he is determined to move forward by initiating the China dream concept. At the international level too, Xi seems to be keen on providing new inputs and thoughts, especially on matters related to China," Monar says.

The president's recent initiatives aimed at improving the living standards of Chinese citizens, reducing extravagance in administration and his determination to end corruption have increased interest about China in Europe, he says. "There is so much talk about the Chinese dream. We are curious to hear from the president on what it means at the international level and its connection to internal and external reforms in China."

Xi has already indicated that he is keen on being innovative in his diplomatic initiatives. Monar describes Xi's strategy as "a parallelism between the internal Chinese dream and external international relationship with major powers".

"The president has taken a proactive approach by playing a key role in international affairs and holding discussions with top leaders on major global issues," Monar says.

Commenting on Xi's image and new style of diplomacy, including first lady Peng Liyuan's personal invitation to her US counterpart Michelle Obama, Monar says: "It is clearly a new opening and new investment in high-level diplomacy. I see it as a new form of dialogue that tests new concepts of relations with major partners."

According to Monar, students at college come from 51 nationalities and hence this makes it the ideal place for top leaders to communicate with young people.

"We have only three Chinese students now, but we are confident that the number will grow in the future," Monar says. "We want to welcome more Chinese students as they will help reinforce China's image with European students."

The university has 330 students in Bruges, and was largely focused on topics and subjects pertaining to Europe. However, in 2008, it added EU-China relations as a new subject for study.

Xi's visit to the university will also coincide with the opening of a new EU-China Research Center, a center with more than 10,000 books and a library donated by the Chinese government, the first of its kind in Europe.

According to Men Jing, director of the research center, the library will have books and video materials about China's history, culture and education in six different languages.

tuoyannan@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily European Weekly 03/28/2014 page9)