ABSTRACT
People-to-people exchanges and cooperation have always been a major theme in China’s foreign exchanges, and this also holds true for Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). As to how to forge understanding between people, President Xi Jinping has continuously summarised and put forward some fundamental guidelines and principles. Regarding people-to-people exchanges and cooperation, therefore, President Xi often restates that “the close ties between our peoples must be nurtured through constant efforts”. Despite cooperative education, the Confucius Institute programme is an important approach for international people-to-people exchanges and cooperation in the field of education. Besides education institutions cooperation, think-tank collaborations are equally important components of people-to-people exchanges under the BRI. At the governmental level, China sets great store by adding content on people-to-people exchanges and cooperation to intergovernmental cooperation frameworks. The Belt and Road international symposium, the Belt and Road think-tank cooperation alliance and other high-end academic exchange platforms and cooperation mechanisms are improving.
