People-to-people exchange can counter toxic West-China narrative

"It's very easy to get caught up in what you see and hear on TV, but you don't really know a place or its people until you come in, experience it for yourself, and get your feet on the ground." I recently came across this quote in China Daily. A Harvard University student made the comment at the end of the university's largest international exchange program – the Harvard Summit for Young Leaders in China.

This kind of approach is quite different from what I encountered about 25 years ago when I went to China to begin my doctoral studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. At the time, it was common sense for young researchers to move to China because studying and comprehending such a complex country from a distance was impossible.

I also remember feeling frustrated after meeting with senior scholars who had begun studying China 15 years before me, a temporal advantage that enabled them to explore China in a unique way. They took advantage of a friendly and informal environment where local students and scholars, flattered by Westerners' genuine interest in China, spent time helping them understand the country's many facets, including history, mentality, limitations, and medium- and long-term goals.

Approaching China in this way entails not only interiorizing more authentic points of view, but also better contextualizing the country's beliefs, ambitions and viewpoints. It also encourages the consolidation and development of mutually beneficial professional ties into lasting friendships.

How did we go from the confidence and authenticity of mutually enriching exchange to such profound distrust that young people interested in learning more about China build their own opinions by relying on media and narrative rather than direct experience?

Chinese intellectuals have remained cohesive and interested, actively seeking possibilities for exchange with their Western counterparts. Recently, a Chinese media delegation, consisting of journalism professors from Tsinghua and Peking universities and senior journalists from leading Chinese media outlets was in Paris to meet French researchers and journalists to better understand what France thinks of China today and why. In contrast, Western interest in visiting China appears to have waned.

When Beijing, through its diplomatic network or other organizations, invites researchers or writers to visit China, they are dismissed as "propaganda trips."

Due to this attitude, scholars, who are expected to form accurate opinions and share them with the media, civil society, political and economic circles, no longer travel to China and end up analyzing the country from a desk thousands of miles away. This, despite university teaching that meaningful research must be grounded in fieldwork.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has spoken about people-to-people exchange to reverse this trend, and initiatives like the Harvard Summit for Young Leaders in China seem to highlight the responsibility of younger generations.

Prominent American scholars, including Scott Kennedy (Center for Strategic & International Studies), Scott Rozelle (Stanford University), Andrew Mertha (Johns Hopkins-SAIS) and Mary E. Gallagher (University of Michigan), have begun to speak out more about the need for a more comprehensive recoupling of ties between China and the United States, which could be facilitated by increased US-China scholarly cooperation. One hopes that they will be heard.

And that Europe will do the same.

(The author is an independent researcher based in Paris. The views are her own.)