On March 4^th, more than seventy foreign high-ranking officers from 47 countries came to BAI to take part in the Academic Forum on Cross-cultural exchange. The officers had been studying at College of Defense Studies, National Defense University PLA China (NDU) and the forum was co-hosted by BAI and NDU, the highest level of its kind responsible for the training of foreign officers in PLA. It was very meaningful for BAI to hold the forum under the background that Beijing is building up a world city with Chinese characteristics and advancing for a cultural capital of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Mr. Liu Honglei, college committee member of BAI, presided over the form. Other key participants included BAI vice president Ms. Liu Yang and college committee member Mr. Zhou Chunming, and also included Mr. Guo Xinning, vice president of College of Defense Studies and Prof. Xu Hui of NDU. Prof. Liang Jun and Prof. Wang Junjie gave keynote speeches on the forum.

Ms. Liu Yang addressed on the forum

        Ms. Liu Yang introduced to the delegation the Chinese civil servants systems and BAI’s recent developments in teaching, research, management etc. She emphasized that China’s civil servant law had set the guidelines for civil servants training. BAI is the key institution responsible for civil servants training in Beijing Municipality and trains over 5000 civil servants from different fields per year. BAI attaches great importance to academic exchange and cooperation and has established relationship with different government departments, Chinese Academy of Governance, institutions of higher learning and scientific research institutions in domestic. As a college oriented to the world, BAI takes active part in international cooperation and exchange. BAI has established cooperative relations with administrative colleges and the related institutes in over 20 countries and regions. This is the first time for BAI to hold the forum together with College of Defense Studies and both sides hope that foreign officers can know Chinese culture better in order to achieve the aim for mutual understanding, friendship and cooperation. BAI also hopes to further develop its friendly cooperation with College of Defense Studies.

Seventy officers attending the forum

        Mr. Guo Xinxining expressed his heartfelt gratitude for BAI. He said that foreign officers have studied many courses about China at College of Defense Studies except for the civil servant training systems, which was perfectly supplemented by BAI. The theme of the forum, on cross-cultural exchanges, is quite meaningful at present situation. Mr. Guo believed the two BAI professors’ key-note speeches would help deepen our understanding for different cultures and civilizations between China and the western world.

Key-note speeches by BAI professors

        The theme of Professor Wang Zhijie’s speech is Chinese Traditional Culture and Comparison between China and Foreign Cultures. He briefly summarized Chinese culture characteristics and the current significance, and gave a comparison of the eastern and western cultures as well as Arabic-Islamic cultures. Professor Liang Jun , with his fluency in English, cited Mateo Ricci as an example to give the audience a brief introduction of the history of cultural exchanges between China and the foreign countries.  The audience was deeply impressed by the speeches.

Visiting the Graveyard of Matteo Ricci

        After the forum, the seventy foreign officers visited the Graveyard of Mateo Ricci and other Foreign Missionaries during Ming and Qing dynasties on BAI campus.