Chinese President Xi Jinping (back, 4th L) and his wife Peng Liyuan (back, 2nd L) greet teachers and students during their visit to Lincoln High School in Tacoma of Washington State, the United States, Sept. 23, 2015. [Photo/Xinhua]

"I felt extremely grateful when I received the greeting card from President Xi," said Brian Suy, an 11th grader from the Lincoln High School in the U.S. state of Washington.

On Jan. 1, Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife, Peng Liyuan, replied to a New Year card from representatives of middle school teachers and students from Washington state.

In their reply card, the couple expressed their hope that the youth of China and the United States will continue to participate in China's initiative of inviting 50,000 young Americans to China for exchange and study programs in a five-year span.

Earlier, the U.S.-China Youth and Student Exchange Association, as well as representatives of teachers and students from Lincoln High School and Stadium High School, who have visited China through the initiative, sent a New Year card to Xi, Peng and the Chinese people.

"I am willing to be a successor to keep the relations of the people of China and America strong and close," Suy told Xinhua. "I believe that the world will ultimately be a better place if future generations strengthen these connections."

Bridge of friendship

After having received New Year cards twice from Xi and his wife in reply to their greetings, teachers and students from Washington state are greatly encouraged, said Zhou Shuqi, co-chair of the U.S.-China Youth and Student Exchange Association.

In February 2024, Xi and Peng extended their good wishes for the Year of the Dragon in their card to Lincoln High School, inviting students to visit China more often, including through the "50,000 in five years" initiative.

These cards are a token of U.S.-China friendship and a bridge that connects young people, which "motivate us to move forward," said Zhou.

Over a year, about 14,000 American youths have visited China for exchanges and study.

"Our experience in China was incredibly rich and rewarding," Stadium High School Principal Shannon Marshall said. "This experience has created long-lasting friendship between American students and Chinese students."

"We would love to send more students in 2025 and are so thankful for the opportunities," she said.

"It was a privilege to have been able to sign a greeting card for President Xi," said Lucy Arceno, a student from Lincoln High School.

Recalling her China trip, she said what impressed her the most was the hospitality of the Chinese people. "I made quite a few Chinese friends," she said. "One of my Chinese friends had this to say after we got to know each other, 'gradually it dawned on me that we are of no difference.' I found this to be a very beautiful statement about friendships."

"People-to-people exchanges -- direct communications between Chinese people and their foreign counterparts in all walks of life -- form part of the foundation of President Xi's international way of thinking," Robert Lawrence Kuhn, chairman of the Kuhn Foundation, told Xinhua.

"President Xi puts extra emphasis on people-to-people exchanges" in the development of bilateral relations, Kuhn said.

Friendship that endures

For Lincoln High School, warm interactions with Xi have been maintained for long. As early as in 1993, Xi visited the school as then secretary of the Fuzhou Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China.

In September 2015, he revisited the school with Peng during his first state visit to the United States as Chinese president, and encouraged students to travel to China to become more familiar with the country.

During their stay, the couple enjoyed in the school's auditorium a choir performance by students from both countries. Lynn Eisenhauer, a music teacher at the school, was present.

"I have had the amazing opportunity to travel throughout China three times during 2024," she told Xinhua in a recent interview. "Many of my friendships with Chinese teachers and students have begun while learning to do calligraphy together, singing side by side, or doing Tai Chi with each other."

Eisenhauer was amazed that when she joined a group from Washington state to visit China last year, an opportunity came for the group to perform again before Peng during a China-U.S. youth exchange activity in Beijing, which was "a truly magical memory."

"One of the ways our friendships continue to grow is through these shared experiences and the common bonds they help us to create," Eisenhauer said. "Peaceful connections and enduring friendships can make the world a better place for all of us."

Maurice Chong from Washington state participated both in the choir in 2015 and the youth exchange activity in 2024. Now an exchange student at Peking University, Chong said he was inspired by Xi to study abroad back in 2015, when the Chinese president encouraged them with a Chinese adage: "Read 10,000 books and travel 10,000 miles."

Xi's initiative to invite American students to China "will indeed have a big effect on people-to-people relations between the U.S. and China, and that's what we need," said Elyn MacInnis, founder of "Friends of Kuliang," a group gathering descendants of U.S. families who once lived in Kuliang, Fujian Province.

Communication is a good bridge to build trust, "and trust is very important for friendship," MacInnis said.

"Long live peace"

The year 2025 marks the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War.

During World War II, China and the United States fought together for peace and justice, and the friendship between the two peoples stood the test of blood and fire and is growing ever stronger, Xi and Peng said in their New Year card.

The couple's words were in response to the U.S. students' card to them, which paid tribute to this part of history.

"'Long Live Peace; Eternal Friendship.' We wrote this wish in our card," said David Chong, founder and president of the U.S.-China Youth and Student Exchange Association.

"We want to convey the significance of maintaining world peace and the longing for future peace to young people of both countries, and encourage them to inherit this precious friendship," Chong said.

Among those sending the card was William Felagai, a 12th grader from Lincoln High School, who recalled hearing about the bilateral friendship from a Flying Tiger veteran. During World War II, a U.S. air squadron composed of pilots from the United States Army Air Corps, Navy, and Marine Corps helped the Chinese fight Japanese invaders. They are better known as the Flying Tigers.

"He talked about how U.S. soldiers and pilots found refuge with Chinese villagers who were willing to risk not only themselves and their families' lives but their whole village from destruction by the Japanese military," Felagai said.

Jeffrey Greene, chairman of the Sino-American Aviation Heritage Foundation, said that Xi has recalled the epic of the Flying Tigers on many occasions, including in a reply letter to the foundation in 2023.

The foundation has launched a Flying Tigers Friendship School and Youth Leaders Program, with the participation of dozens of Chinese and U.S. middle schools and universities. The program brought students from 11 U.S. states to visit China in 2024, and will be expanded in the new year, Greene said.

"I'm very proud of the way that they've all understood the importance of what happened between China and the United States 80 years ago," he said. "What they learn is that there's tremendous opportunity for cooperation between the Chinese people and the American people in the future."

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