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张建敏:中美过去靠“求同存异”走到一起,今天仍是如此
最后更新: 2024-02-04 09:41:34Kalidip Choudhury: China has always played an outsize role in the history of the world. Ever since its civilization began on the banks of the Huanghe River, China has been capturing the imagination as few countries have. But the rise of modern China is especially astonishing, it is without parallel in modern history. More than 800 million people have been lifted out of poverty, 75% of the world's global poor. In 1990,75% of China lived in rural areas. Now, 75% are urban.
And here's another astonishing number for you: between 2010 and 2013, more concrete was poured in China than in the entire 20th century of the United States. That's a mind boggling number. But it's not just concrete and steel alone. Just when California is backing away from a subsidy on renewable energy, China is now moving ahead. 50% of the world's electrical cars are either manufactured or consumed in China, 50% of the world's solar and wind energy is manufactured and consumed in China.
But there are challenges ahead. China is emerging from a long covid lockdown and the questions remain, what impact will that have on its economy? And for the first time, China's population is contracting rather than expanding. It is an aging population. How will that affect China? And therefore, how will those ripples affect the rest of the world, affect the United States, and affect us here in California?
And so we are very pleased and honored that Ambassador Zhang Jianmin has agreed to join us onstage and present us his views on how China plans to address those challenges. Ambassador Zhang, welcome to the Commonwealth Club of America. Please tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got to this position.
Zhang Jianmin: Thank you, Khalidip, for your warm welcome. And thank you, members of Commonwealth Club, both here on site and online, for your interest in China and Chinese culture. Let me start by extending to you the best wishes for the Chinese New Year, the year of the Dragon. It's a very auspicious year and hope it will bring all of us the best of luck and good fortune.
As far as myself is concerned, I've been in this job as Chinese Consul-General Based in San Francisco for one year and eight months now. And before that, I served as Chinese ambassador to the Czech Republic for three and a half years. I joined the Chinese Foreign Service in the year 1990. My first visit to this country was in 1994. I also served in the Chinese Embassy in DC from 2009 to 2011.
In my job working in the headquarters of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, I've had the good fortune of serving many important visits and discussions. So I hope I could put all these experience into good use and do a good job in promoting more mutual understanding and friendship between China and US as a whole, and in particular between China and California.
Kalidip Choudhury: Have there been any surprises? What have you learned about California, what have you learned about the West Coast during your time here?
Zhang Jianmin: I feel I'm very lucky because in the west coast, it has a longer history of exchanges and cooperation with China. It recently hosted APEC, and has such a wonderful, hard-working Chinese community, which made important contributions to prosperity of this part of America. Ever since I arrived, I've been very encouraged by the cooperation exchanges between California and China. For instance, we are about to celebrate the year of the Dragon, the Chinese Spring Festival. And in September 2022, Governor Newson signed into law that Spring Festival will be honored as a public holiday, being the first state to designate Spring Festival as a public holiday. And you mentioned the pandemic earlier in your opening remarks. Governor Newson was also the first US governor to visit China in the wake of the pandemic, with a focus on climate change. And I think the visit was a great success.
The west coast has served as the host city for two APECs. The first APEC took place in Seattle in 1993, and last year, San Francisco played very successful host to APEC; Chinese presidents came. The two presidents had a very successful summit, which gave people much needed confidence in the future of our relationship.
Kalidip Choudhury: Let us talk about the future of your relationship. 2024 marks the 45th year of friendship between the United States and China. It has not been without its challenges. How do you perceive the current state of affairs with China, with the United States?
Zhang Jianmin: This year marks, as you said, the 45th anniversary of China US relationship. It has not been without challenges, ups and downs. But viewed as a whole, the relationship has made significant headway. It has brought lots of tangible benefits to the people of the two countries. It has also contributed to peace, stability and prosperity throughout the world. I often recall the ice breaking visit by President Nixon in 1972 together with Dr Kissinger. President Nixon also visited my hometown, Hangzhou, where much of the negotiation on Shanghai Communique was done. It was finished actually in Hangzhou, but signed in Shanghai, Hangzhou is not very far from Shanghai.
What I want to say is that when President Nixon visited Hangzhou, he gave Hangzhou some gifts on behalf of the United States. The gifts were five planted saplings of Redwood trees. Over the past five decades and more, the tiny saplings have grown into tall trees in the Botanic Garden and in the parks around the West Lake. I think this illustrates the evolution of China US relationship over the past decades. When we established formal diplomatic ties in 1979, there was hardly any mutual investment. But last year, two-way investment amounted to $260 billion. In 1979, our trade was less than $2.5 billion. And last year, the figure already increased to nearly $760 billion.
So our relationship has been intertwined in almost every aspect: cultural exchanges, people to people exchanges, economic exchanges. As someone told me, we are two major economies now. Neither can ignore the other side.
I think the progress of the relationship has been real. Anyone who has an objective view and fair-minded people would recognize the positive impacts of the progress of our relationship, to the two countries and to the whole world.
Many countries around the world actually are also concerned about the health of China US relationship. Because the way the two countries interact would also affect their way of life and work. So that's the reason why people were so happy to see our two presidents talking to each other, reaching important consensus on so many important issues. This time, the two presidents actually agreed on having dialogue, having more exchanges are important subjects.
The Chinese president, in particular, wanted the US side to work together with China to make sure that the two major countries can get along well with each other. The Chinese proposal was and continues to be that as two major countries, we need to show mutual respect, we need to live together in peace and we need to engage in win-win cooperation. I think cooperation is the only way forward, for the benefit of our two countries and in the interest of the whole world.
Kalidip Choudhury: As you know, the IMF recently released a report that said any strains in the relationship will affect the global economy. Your thoughts on that?
Zhang Jianmin: Exactly. That's also the reason why people are so concerned about tension in the relationship. Once there is tension in China US relationship, it could affect, I think, two percentage points of economic growth. For more than a decade, China has been a key engine of world economic growth. We have contributed to 30% of economic growth globally every year. So if China and the United States, as the two leading economies, are not cooperating with each other. then it would disrupt the stability in supply chain, in industrial chain. So just at the time when we need such cooperation to restore economic growth around the world, tension would actually bring about disaster for the whole humanity.
Kalidip Choudhury: But nevertheless, a fear persists here in America. And in fact, a poll conducted in last October by the Chicago Council of Foreign Affairs that said 60% of Americans feel that China's rise as a global power is a threat to peace. How do you in your role address those concerns?
Zhang Jianmin: I think they don't understand Chinese culture, Chinese people, Chinese government's policy well enough. In part, it's perhaps because of the covid pandemic; over the past three years, there were not much exchanges. People stopped visiting each other. So this has given rise to lots of mutual misunderstanding. People didn't have enough opportunity to explain to each other what they really think. Before the pandemic, we had 5 million mutual visits every year, more than 300 direct flights per week across the Pacific between China and United States. So we have a lot of catch up work to do to make up for the losses caused by the pandemic, but there are also other factors at play.
To me, forgive my bluntness, I think this has also got a lot to do with political correctness in this country. Some politicians tend to politicize everything. So they're spreading those kind of fear, and unwarranted and wrong accusations. That's reason why when Chinese President Xi Jinping talked to President Joe Biden recently, he said that we need to work together to do several things. The very first one is to develop a correct perception of each other. China should be viewed as a partner rather than an enemy, and China's development should be viewed as opportunity rather than a threat. We are more than happy to share with the rest of the world the opportunity of growth and prosperity.
You mentioned China's progress in renewable energy, in zero emission cars, in solar energy, etc. For six years in a row in Shanghai, every November, China would invite people around the world, including from California, the Bay Area Council, to take part in the first ever Import expo, I don't think other countries have ever done something like that. We want to take advantage of China's growth to share in the prosperity and opportunity of growth with the rest of the world.
Kalidip Choudhury: Let us touch on APEC very briefly, because first of all, congratulations to you for organizing a very successful APEC. And you mentioned President Xi Jinping. He had identified five pillars of cooperation with the United States. How did the APEC conference conclude? As for the five pillars of cooperation, which also includes people to people contact, how do you see your role in facilitating those pillars of cooperation?
Zhang Jianmin: Yes, thank you for mentioning the five pillars. I already mentioned the first one, that is to jointly develop a right perception of each other. Then it's jointly manage the differences in an effective way, jointly advance mutually beneficial cooperation, jointly shoulder international responsibilities as major countries, and last but not least, jointly promote culture and people to people exchanges. So for me, I think this is a lot of work, a very demanding task, but I'm happy to do my best to fulfill my duty as the Chinese Consul-general.
People to people exchanges is of utmost importance. President Xi Jinping, in his speech during his stay in San Francisco extended an invitation to 50,000 American youths to visit China in the next five years. I think when you see China with your own eyes, it could give you exposure to the real China and you could make your own conclusion, how does your own observation differ from or match with the information you get from watching news, or reading some of the newspapers, or hearing the remarks from some politicians? So it's very important.
And China is, as I said, doing a lot of trade with the United States. And trade basically is mutually beneficial, giving consumers more choice, creates jobs, improves living standards. So win-win cooperation is really something that can help stabilize the relationship.
And today's world is confronted with so many urgent challenges: climate change, pandemic, geopolitical tensions. Both China and United States are permanent members of the UN Security Council. Both have a role to play in making the world a better place for all. So I think the five pillars are really very important. The priority now is for both China and United States, to work in concert to implement what the two presidents have agreed, rather than saying one thing but doing another. And then it could lead to very frustrating setbacks.
Kalidip Choudhury: California and the Chinese people have a very long history. In fact, some might argue that the California was built on the back of Chinese labor. What most people don't know is that China is California's largest trading partner. You mentioned that Governor Newsom had been to China. Could you tell us a little bit about that visit and what the outcomes were and what it means to the audience.
Zhang Jianmin: Governor Newson led climate change delegation to China in October. And he started his trip from Hong Kong, where he gave a talk on climate change. Then he visited Shenzhen, one of the first cities that opened up and conducted reform economically. There, Governor Newson visited the electric car, electric bus by BYD. He then went to Guangzhou where he signed agreement and climate change cooperation with Guangzhou. By the way, California enjoys sister state province relationship with Guangdong, with Jiangsu, with Inner Mongolia, with Sichuan. And he also visited Shanghai, visited Jiangsu. And he, of course, he visited Beijing.
In Beijing, he also had meetings with many counterparts to have a seminar on climate change. Most important of all, he had a meeting with Chinese President. President Xi in his meeting with Governor Newson said that the vigor and vitality of our relationship comes from sub-national exchanges. So China welcomes the visit by Governor Newson. And China is prepared to strengthen sub-national exchanges, meaning between the provinces and the states in the United States and between the counties and the cities.
I feel that the governors and mayors speak alike. Because in their everyday work, they have to deal with the same issue: jobs, environment, food, housing. So I think if we can enable the governors, the mayors of the two countries to meet each other often, then the kind of misunderstanding that you mentioned earlier could disappear; maybe not totally disappear, but will not stand in the way of efforts to advance mutually beneficial cooperation, because differences are always there.
When Nixon visits China, China and US were so different, but we were able to come together by finding common ground. I think this remains true today.
Kalidip Choudhury: Quick question, which is relevant to California, before the revolution in 1949, 20% of China's population was educated, one hundred million out of four hundred million, now it's close to a hundred percent. How can California's university's educational system play a role in helping with that educational exchange?
Zhang Jianmin: California is very strong in education. For instance, you have Stanford, you have Berkeley, you have UC Davis, you have many other wonderful universities. When I was a student, my teacher told me that, if you have an apple, I have an apple, we exchange, then still you have only two apples. If you have an idea, I have an idea, then we can have, you know, more ideas. So I think this is the same with education. If people can come together to share ideas, to compare notes and learn from each other, the Chinese students would also enrich the classroom here, because they will bring with them Chinese culture, Chinese way of thinking, Chinese philosophy, which might also prove useful, and give American students and students from other countries inspiration. At the same time, the Chinese students here would also draw inspiration from their peers from other cultures.
So we want to see more robust educational exchanges. But unfortunately, I feel that because of the political correctness, we have come across some obstacles in such exchanges. For one thing, we are simplifying visa application procedures. My office committed to be exchange friendly, meaning we are 24/7. You know, if you have an issue, if you request assistance, then we would open our office to meet your need and facilitate your visa application. But for the Chinese applicants in Beijing and other Chinese cities, the queue is too long. And now we promise to the public that will be able to give you visa in 4 working days, and no need for prior appointments. And we hope that the US side can also do more to meet the needs of the aspiring students.
Kalidip Choudhury: Let us talk about the exchange of ideas, what many people in our audience might not be aware, as Ambassador Zhang just mentioned, the world's largest electrical car manufacturing company is not Tesla, it's BYD. And China is unique is that it controls the entire supply chain from cobalt mining to robots manufacturing electrical cars. It is also true that once upon a time, China learned, which is one of the ambassador’s favorite subjects, green policy; it learned a lot about green policy from California and from the United States. But now the table has switched. The student has now become the teacher. What can California learn from China and green policy?
Zhang Jianmin: I think that it's a two-way learning process. Each will bring to the table its unique strength. And I think if we have this kind of positive learning from each other, this kind of positive attitude to learn from each other, both sides will benefit.
We have been very aggressive in imposing requirements on a green energy. So for instance, in Hainan province, all the cars have to be without emission. So I think in this field, there's really a lot of room for mutual learning.
Kalidip Choudhury: Let us now talk about climate change and interesting facts. In 1990, there were about two refrigerators for every hundred households in rural China, and that number is now 90. In 1990, there were about 15 air conditioners for every 100 households in China. That number is now hundred and fifty. This has a severe effect on electricity consumption and on emission of greenhouse gases. The United States and China together emits more than 40% of the world's greenhouse gases. I've talked a lot about renewable energy, solar energy, but it is also true that 60% of China's electricity comes from coal plants and that is growing as it meets the demand of its ever growing population.
How do you see from your perspective, given your own passionate cause in climate change, how do you see a country like China balance the needs of a modernizing population? Because obviously the rest of the world will see China as an example in how China is dealing with these issues.
Zhang Jianmin: Economic growth is important, because it has a direct bearing on jobs and people's living standards. But environmental Protection is also important and increasingly so. How to balance is really a demanding job.
As far as China's concerned, we've announced our goals to achieve carbon neutrality and the carbon peak. Actually China spends less time than what it would take other industrialized countries to achieve the same target.
What I'm proud of is China's track record in reducing per unit GDP energy consumption. For the past years, China's economy has grown significantly. But for on average, for 6% of GDP growth, the energy consumption actually grew at only above 3%, meaning we are growing in a more environmental friendly way. So I think the Chinese people are now more and more aware of the needs of environmental protection and climate change.
When I go back to visit my hometown and visit other Chinese cities, actually one of the biggest change I've noticed is the environment. The water in the river has become much cleaner. When I grew up, when I was a little boy, I grew up near a small river, a tributary of the Grand Canal. It was very near to a textile mill and very close to papermaking factory. So the color of the water in the river kept changing. At that time, you know, I didn't know much about environmental protection. Even though it smelled, I thought it was quite romantic to see the color change. But now when I go back, I saw people fishing, you know, in the same river. So this is really a very big change.
For the time being, China's national parliament will have its annual session in March. At the provincial level, the provincial legislatures usually meet before the Spring Festival. So in these days, you can see that various provinces are having their provincial parliamentary session. And I tuned in TV one day and I heard one governor from Fujian reiterating their commitment, that if he finds there are contradiction between a certain project of economic development and the need of environmental protection, he would give more priority to environment. So if he couldn't feel comfortable that the project will not hurt the environment, then he would rather not have the project and keep the environment in good shape. I think this reflects the change of focus, change of priority. So even though China still have a lot of work to do progressing in its environmental Protection endeavor, we are now more determined than ever to strike a better balance.
Kalidip Choudhury: I also started by talking about China's population. For the first time in recorded history, China's population is shrinking rather than expanding. How do you feel that this has an effect on China's economy?
Zhang Jianmin: I sometimes think of my son, how many children would he be willing to have after he gets married? You know, I have two elder sisters, my wife and I,we have only one child. So it's not surprising that the population is shrinking because of the policy over the past years. Now we are introducing readjustment to the policy, and we are encouraging the young couples to have more than just one, better two, three even better.
However, it's not an issue exclusive to China that the young people are not that enthusiastic in having many children. I understand that they lead a fast-paced life, and they are working or living under more pressure than we or my parent's generation. But still, even though China's population is shrinking, we need to recognize that in terms of its educated population, it's an effective workforce, it's a pool of talents, it's not really shrinking that much. So number-wise it’s shrinking, but talent wise, it's still growing thanks to progress in education.
But of course, we are seeing the aging population. And for instance, because my wife and I are working here, and my sister-in-law, as a professor, is also very busy, how to take care of our mother-in-law is a demanding task for us; I think other Chinese households probably face the same dilemma. We need to develop more elderly care facilities. We need to further develop China's medical service so that when people age, they can still be well taken care of. I think we are also learning from the experience of other countries. And this can also be an area where China and the US can have dialogue, share experience and learn from each other. It's not just a challenge for China, it's also a challenge for many other economies.
Kalidip Choudhury: It is. In fact, Ambassador Zhang, the example that is most usually thrown out is the example of Japan, which in the 1990s went through a similar process. And the question remain, has Japan advanced beyond that stage? So what have you learned from your studying of history is how Japan addresses that and how China can address that.
Zhang Jianmin: As I said, we see the population aging. I mentioned earlier that we need to develop more aggressively the elderly care facilities, and we also need to do a better job in Social security arrangements to develop more insurance. I think we in China have a philosophy of taking care of the elderly. So it's a very important task for not just the government but also ordinary citizens.
Kalidip Choudhury: As China is making the transition from being the manufacturing center of the world to perhaps the center of innovation, I think there are some that might not be aware of this, because there's a feeling that whatever the United States does, China copies. But now it seems that the reverse is also happening. And I'll cite a couple of examples, that Facebook copied Wechat. Wechat very early on had a payment option for a session and Facebook copied that five years afterwards and no one raised an eyebrow. Everyone is familiar with TikTok, and obviously a few years later, Instagram came up with its own module for TikTok. You've raised a very good point on that the population may be aging, but more and more educated people are coming to the fore. How do they play in this innovative to drag China into the next century?
Zhang Jianmin: People in China are proud of their innovation in the past, paper making technology, the compass, the fireworks, etc. And today, China is home to more than 400,000 high tech companies. China has the second largest number of unicorns. So innovation is getting more and more prevalent in China. China enjoyed sustained economic growth over the past decades. We used to have double digit growth as a result of opening up and reform. And now the size of the economy has become already so big that we are making a shift from quantity focused growth to a quality focused growth. So we have to rely on innovation. China has benefited from exchanges and opening up with outside world.
And the same time, China is also making contribution to the well-being of people in other countries through our own innovation. Talking about intellectual property rights protection, it's not because other countries want us to do this, it's actually out of our own interests, we have to enforce intellectual property rights, laws and regulations. We have set up tribunals on intellectual property rights. So if you look at the number of application of patents, copyrights protection cases, the number is very encouraging.
Here, California, is a pioneer in innovation in a so many areas. So it's always mutually beneficial for the Chinese young people in particular to work together with their American counterparts and have brainstorming and draw inspiration from each other.
Kalidip Choudhury: A subject that has come up, also at the APEC conference, is your belt and road initiative. Could you explain to the audience what the belt and road Initiative is?
Zhang Jianmin: The Belt and Road initiative is about China's cooperation with the countries from the hinterland to the west, so that's the belt part, and also on the sea, we have the maritime Silk Road. So this initiative has been there for 10 years, and it has actually drawn lots of support from countries along the routes. And together, they have created infrastructure projects, production projects, which create jobs and lift the living standards of the people along the routes. We want this Belt and Road Initiative to be a public good initiative. And we want to give the opportunity to other countries to use China's experience for reference. And I think we're doing a good job.
We have had several summit meetings about the Belt and Road initiative. And since this initiative is open to all, for anyone who is interested in joining, they are more than welcome to join us.
Kalidip Choudhury: How can China work in its belt and Road Initiative with perhaps some of the urban communities in California? Is there a potential opportunity for that?
Zhang Jianmin: I think smart city would be a very good topic where the urban dwellers and the Chinese city management can work together on how to build more energy saving apartments, for example. I think city planning is a very important subject and there's so much to discuss, public transport, for instance. One subject that is in headline every day is artificial intelligence. I think this is also an area where people, engineers, students in different countries can have more discussion because artificial intelligence is growing very fast. It's attracting so much investment and it's revolutionary and it will definitely affect every aspect of our lives. But how can it be governed? How can they be properly managed so that we can maximize the positive impacts and prevent potential risks and dangers. I think this is on everybody's mind. So this could also be a subject where people can work together on.
Kalidip Choudhury: I will now depend a lot on your diplomatic skills to answer the next question. Elections in the United States are coming up very shortly. How does the paths change with different candidates? How do you, in your position, address that?
Zhang Jianmin: First of all, for China, it's your election and we don't interfere in other countries’ domestic politics. Having said that, China US relationship is so important that it affects us all. So we certainly hope that people vote for someone who would contribute to a better China US relationship. And I think what makes me happy is that if you look back on the past 45 years of China US relationship, it has been the consensus of both parties to develop a good China US relationship. Nixon broke ice by visiting China in 1972. And it was the President Carter who formally established diplomatic ties. And since then, you've had presidents from both parties having exchanges with their Chinese counterparts.
It's in the interests of people of the two countries and the people of the whole world for our two countries to have a stable and cooperative relationship. And I think the whole world expects responsibility from elected officials to work towards a better relationship.
Kalidip Choudhury: You mentioned Governor Newsom's visit to China, but that was built on previous visits starting from Republican governors who have visited China to build up this. One of the questions from the audience is, what is your suggestion for the next stage of development between California and China?
Zhang Jianmin: I think we have a lot to do. For instance, let's start with the student exchanges. President Xi invites 50,000 American young people to visit China in the next five years. And we believe California could account fo many out of the 50,000. And we also hope that there will be more direct flights between California and China. Bay Area Council, every year, runs the California Pavilion on behalf of the entities or businesses from California in the International Import Expo in Shanghai. So we hope that it can also do more to introduce more American products and services to China. In the next five years, China will import a total of seventeen trillion dollars of goods and services from the rest of the world. So the market demand from a growing economy like China's is huge, and the Chinese people, as they improve their living standards, also want to enjoy more Napa Valley wine, more sunkist orange. So I think we can do more trade, and we can have more cooperation on climate change and work together on those pressing global challenges together.
Kalidip Choudhury: There's an increasing concern in California about North Korea's military might and people in California especially feel that they are within range of the missile program that North Korea has. What is China's role, what is China's responsibility in ensuring the safety, given how that affects peace in the world?
Zhang Jianmin: North Korea is a sovereign country. So it's responsible for its own conduct. China and the DPRK are close neighbors and we have normal friendship and cooperation, very close ties. So we want their economy to grow, and we want their people to enjoy a good life.
At same time, you know, because of the tension between the DPRK and some other countries, you see incidents, you see tension emerge from time to time. But for us, we always call for a peaceful settlement of disputes. And we always call for dialogue between the parties concerned. I've been involved in, at the beginning, it was four party talks, then it was six party talks. We want to bring about permanent peace. And we want there to be peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula. But it depends on real efforts from each and every one of the stakeholders. So we hope that United States would also play a more constructive and helpful role in this regard to stabilize the situation.
Kalidip Choudhury: Early on when you first started, you mentioned the rise of artificial intelligence. We talked about potentially fake news. You also talked about getting access. You talked about the political environment and how that affects the news that we get here in America. If you were an audience member, what source would you rely on to get an accurate description on China?
Zhang Jianmin: Of course, I would rely on China's own news. We have many good news agencies like Xinhua News Agency, China Daily, People's Daily, CGTN, CCTV, they're very international now. And I also draw on credible news agencies. But most important thing is you need to check what you read with the facts on the ground. Sometimes you do see fake news and we have one program in CGTN and actually it's called headline busting. You know, it would expose the fallacies. Some correspondence use outdated pictures and some would use a picture of one country to talk about things happening in another country. And that could be very misleading. And artificial intelligence, which has been blamed for deepfakes, I think is a challenge for all of us. So how to work together to make sure that AI could be used in a responsible way, not to let AI be used in such a way that it will mislead people, misguide people is something that needs to be taken very seriously.
Kalidip Choudhury: Many people here in the Bay Area are not used to seeing people from the foreign service or the diplomatic service. There are quite a few people over here of Chinese origin. How do you encourage people to follow in your footpath to get in the foreign service, such as yourself.
Zhang Jianmin: It's my honor to serve my country as a diplomat. Here in San Francisco, everyone is proud of the Golden Gate Bridge. And diplomacy is actually about building bridges rather than erecting barriers. We do solve problems. But we solve problems by building bridges, by avoiding conflicts, by making necessary compromise, through bringing about better mutual understanding. So I think it's a noble job. There's no higher honor than representing your country and serving not just the interests of your own countrymen, but also the common interests of the people on this planet. If you are not in foreign service, sometimes when you talk about some big jargons like world peace, stability, it sounds so distant and hollow. But if you have been engaged in diplomacy for years, then you do feel the sense that you shoulder the heavy responsibility, what you do one way or another does affect the future of the world. I've served in my job as interpreter between summit meetings. And when I look back, I always feel that, what an honor to serve as a bridge in a promoting mutual understanding between the two countries and between two peoples.
Actually, when I go back to China, I often get invited by our human resources department to talk to university students, to share with them my story and how it is important for the young people to have a dream of serving the country and serving mankind through a foreign service.
We need to have more people. After all, you know, no matter how advance AI get, people still need to rely on human intelligence, and we still need to have face to face dialogue to solve problems and to make progress on mutually beneficial things.
Kalidip Choudhury: So one last question, and this will severely test your diplomatic skills, is how does the San Francisco Zoo get access to a couple of pandas? You've talked about building bridges. You've talked about building results.
Zhang Jianmin: President Xi, in his remarks, talked about how pandas are loved by people in this country, especially the children. And Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has already announced that panda would be coming back to California. I've visited San Francisco Zoo. It's a very nice zoo near Ocean Beach. So let's wait and see. And I know the mayor and the governor and lieutenant governor are all very enthusiastic about getting panda back into California. So I'm also looking forward to seeing that happen.
Kalidip Choudhury: Wonderful. And we will hold the ambassador to his promise.
Zhang Jianmin: Let's work together.
Kalidip Choudhury: We thank the ambassador for his presence, and thank him for his generosity for providing a wonderful feast outside to celebrate the year of the Dragon.
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