China-Japan Youth Friendly Exchange Year inaugurated

On the afternoon of March 15, the China-Japan Youth Friendly Exchange Year was inaugurated at Renmin University of China. President Hu Jintao attended related events. Premier Wen Jiabao and Japanese Prime Minister Fukuda sent congratulatory messages respectively.

March is full of springtime atmosphere and is alive with young people’s enthusiasm and passions everywhere. A 1000-member Japanese Youth Friendship Envoys Delegation that came to China at the invitation of the Chinese government celebrated the inauguration of the China-Japan Youth Friendly Exchange Year with over 1000 Chinese youth representatives from all sectors.

President Hu Jintao met with the key members of the Japanese delegation. He watched the tea art and calligraphy exchange between the youths of the two countries and planted together with the Chinese and Japanese youths some cherry and magnolia trees, symbolic of China-Japan friendship for generations.

Premier Wen Jiabao and Japanese Prime Minister Fukuda sent congratulatory messages to the Exchange Year respectively and expressed the hope that youths of the two countries would cherish lofty aspirations, have the world at mind, learn from each other and make common progress, become promoters of peace, inheritors of friendship and advancers of cooperation, and will map out beautiful blueprints of the future for the two countries.

At the opening ceremony, Hu Chunha, First Secretary of the CCYL Central Committee’s secretariat, and Chairman of the Chinese Organizing Committee of the Exchange Year, and Yotaro Kobayashi, the chief Japanese member of the new 21st Century Committee for China-Japan Friendship and special advisor to the Japanese Youth Friendship Envoys Delegation, made speeches. Chinese and Japanese youth representatives jointly unveiled the logo of the Exchange Year.

Chinese and Japanese participants freely expressed their appreciation of their bilateral traditional friendship and voiced their expectations for better relationship in the forms of songs and dances of their two countries so popular among the young people.   Horse Race, Poem of the Great Earth and Flow of the Great River in instrumental music, Gratitude and Bravery in Japanese-style Drum, Challenges in a Tug of War in interactive festivity, the facetious play hand movements behind the scenes, the melodious tune of fishnet pulling, the dance Red Corals, the Cheer leading exercise, and the street dance performance ---- all were brilliant and boisterous enough to overwhelm the Chinese and Japanese youths present in an atmosphere of friendship between the two countries. With the onset of the lyrical rhyme of Tomorrow Will be Better, Chinese and Japanese youths sang in common: We wish a better tomorrow for China-Japan ties, pushing the opening ceremony to the zenith.

The program of the Exchange Year was jointly defined by the Chinese and Japanese leaders in 2007. It was an important move to further the momentum of bilateral ties by taking the opportunity of marking the 30th anniversary of the China-Japan Treaty of Peace and Friendship. It was also an important exchange event following the 2007 China-Japan Cultural Exchange Year and the marking of the 35th anniversary of normalization of China-Japan diplomatic relationship, designed to further the national feelings of their citizens and foster successors to the cause of bilateral friendship.   The visiting Japanese Youth Friendship Envoys Delegation was sent by the Japanese government at the invitation of the Chinese government based on the Memorandum on China-Japan Youth Friendly Exchange Year Program signed by the two governments. The delegation arrived in China on 10th. They visited Shanghai, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Hangzhou, Shenyang and Dalian in six groups and returned to Beijing separately on 14th. Composed of young Diet members, senior middle school and university students, public servants, company staff, journalists and youth representatives of other circles, the mission was widely representative.

Ling Jihua, member of the CPC Central Committee’s Secretariat, and Head of the CPC Central Committee’s General Office, State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan, Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, Edcuation Minister Zhou Ji and Japanese Ambassador to China Yuji Miyamoto attended the opening ceremony and other events. ACYF President Yang Yue presided over the opening ceremony and declared the inauguration of the Exchange Year.