Peng Liyuan, wife of Chinese President Xi Jinping, emphasized the crucial role of youth in shaping the future of China-U.S. relations during a friendship event held on Thursday in Beijing. Addressing young participants, she urged them to act as bridges of friendship between the two nations.
The event, titled “Bond with Kuliang: 2025 China-U.S. Youth Friendship Event”, gathered young people from both countries to celebrate and strengthen cultural ties. Kuliang, a historical hillside resort in Fuzhou, southeast China’s Fujian Province, symbolizes longstanding connections between China and the United States dating back to the late 1800s.
At the gathering, Elyn MacInnis, founder of Friends of Kuliang, and Luca Berrone, a friend of Xi from Iowa, shared their heartfelt memories of Kuliang and their experiences promoting people-to-people exchanges and local cooperation between the two nations.
Peng highlighted the significance of these stories, stating, “The century-old story of Kuliang and President Xi’s friendship with his old friends in Iowa spanning over 40 years epitomize the China-U.S. friendship.” She added that despite differences in history, culture, and language, people in both countries share love for their families and possess kindness, friendliness, hard work, and practicality, making them perfectly capable of being good friends and partners.
The Kuliang Story: A Friendship Beyond Time
The Kuliang story began in 1992 when Xi, then Secretary of the CPC Fuzhou Municipal Committee, invited the widow of American physics professor Milton Gardner to visit Kuliang. Gardner had spent his childhood in Kuliang after arriving in Fuzhou with his parents in 1901. Despite returning to California after ten happy years, Gardner cherished a lifelong dream of revisiting Kuliang—a wish he was unable to fulfill before his passing.
Determined to honor her husband’s dream, Gardner’s widow embarked on several trips to China, initially unaware of Kuliang’s exact location. With the assistance of a Chinese student in the U.S., she discovered that Kuliang was a town in Fuzhou. Moved by her story, Xi extended an invitation for her to visit.
In August 1992, she arrived in Fuzhou, where she was deeply touched by the beauty of Kuliang and the warmth of its people. She reunited with Gardner’s childhood friends, who were then in their 90s, creating a poignant chapter in the history of China-U.S. friendship.
In 2012, during a visit to the U.S. as China’s vice president, Xi shared the Kuliang story at a luncheon, calling for strengthened exchanges between the peoples of China and the United States.
The Future Lies with the Youth
President Xi has consistently emphasized the importance of people-to-people exchanges, especially among the younger generation. In November 2023, he proposed inviting 50,000 American youths to China over the next five years to “experience a real, multi-dimensional, and comprehensive China.”
Recently, Xi responded to teachers and students from a U.S. youth pickleball cultural exchange delegation from Montgomery County, Maryland, who visited China in April under this initiative. In his message, Xi noted that the future of China-U.S. relations depends on the youth and expressed hope that they would become a new generation of ambassadors for friendship, contributing to stronger ties between the two peoples.
Jeffrey Sullivan, head of the delegation, expressed gratitude for Xi’s initiative. “The trip allowed us to immerse ourselves in Chinese culture and experience interpersonal relationships,” he said. “The visit is something we will carry with us forever.”
Echoing Xi’s sentiments, Peng concluded her address by saying, “Youth is the future of the country and the future of friendship.” She called on young people to be inheritors of China-U.S. friendship and promoters of peace and harmony.
