People-to-people Exchanges: The Key to Enhance Mutual Understanding

On August 26, 2019, Hu Zhengyue, vice president of China Public Diplomacy Association (CPDA), and Zhou Mingwei, CPDA executive director and former president of China International Publishing Group, met visiting 11-people journalist delegation from Indonesia’s three provinces of Bali, West Nusa Tenggara, and East Nusa Tenggara at Dongyue Taoist Temple, Beijing. The two sides held in-depth discussions on various topics including how to further people-to-people exchanges and media cooperation.

“China and Indonesia boast a long friendship and enjoy deep connections. In recent years, with the rapid development of friendly relations between the two countries, both sides hope to better understand each other,” Hu Zhengyue said. He pointed out that at present, Bali and its neighboring provinces of West Nusa Tenggara and East Nusa Tenggara attract many Chinese tourists annually. And he believed that that number would continue to grow in the future. Hopefully, the people-to-people exchanges between the two countries will be further expanded, and media cooperation will be strengthened to enhance mutual understanding, thus making greater contributions to the closer ties of the two peoples.

Zhou Mingwei pointed out that journalists have been playing a particularly important role in the development of China-Indonesia relations. Compared with the rapidly developing economic and trade relations in recent years, the people-to-people exchanges and mutual understanding between the two sides are relatively lagging behind. He thanked the Indonesian journalists for introducing the three provinces of Indonesia to the Chinese people with their Indonesian perspectives, and looked forward to seeing that they would bring back to Indonesia stories about the latest development of China. Zhou believed that exchanges enable the two sides understand each other better and lay a more solid foundation for the development of bilateral relations.

I G M Bang Dwikora Putra, head of the Indonesian journalist delegation and chairman of Bali Provincial Press Association, said that at present, China is the largest source of foreign tourists to Bali Island, and there are also many Chinese tourists visiting West Nusa Tenggara and East Nusa Tenggara. He hoped that through media cooperation and people-to-people exchanges, the relationship between the two sides would continue to develop healthily. Nine of the 11 members in the delegation came to China for the first time. They valued this opportunity to learn more about China and showed great interest to learn the development of modern China, the Chinese people and the country’s beautiful landscapes.

“Seeing is believing. We will take this opportunity to see China and its development with our own eyes,” I G M Bang Dwikora Putra said.