On June 4, 2024, the grand Opening Ceremony of the Bangladesh Young Leaders Delegation to China 2024 was held at Shanghai Institutes for International Studies (SIIS). Chen Dongxiao, President of SIIS and Chairman of the Centre for China Studies (CCS), Xu Kai, Deputy Director of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Shanghai Municipal People’s Government, and Professor Yang Jiemian, Chairman of SIIS Academic Affairs Council attended the opening ceremony.

Deputy Director Xu Kai delivered a welcome speech. He remarked that the establishment of CCS was an important initiative to implement the guiding principles of the summit between leaders of the two countries in South Africa last year, and the visit of the Bangladesh Young Leaders Delegation to China coordinated by CCS marked a good start. He expressed three expectations on the delegation’s visit to China. First, he hoped frequent visits and exchanges to be continued to enhance the friendship between the two countries. China and Bangladesh are traditionally good friends and the peoples of the two countries share a thousand-year history of friendly exchanges. As President Xi Jinping pointed out that closer bond between the people is the key to enhancing state-to-state relations, Deputy Director Xu hoped that the members of the delegation and the people of Bangladesh would come to China more often for travel and enjoying the scenery of China, thereby enhancing the mutual understanding between the two nations. Second, he hoped the exchanges between the two countries to be deepened and their cooperation enhanced. Currently, Bangladesh is vigorously advancing its national economic construction and development. Shanghai has become a lively example of Chinese modernization in economic and social development with its most vivid practice. It can share its experiences and exchange ideas on infrastructure, economic development and urban governance with Bangladesh. Third, he wished young leaders to play an important role in building a community with a shared future for mankind. The Belt and Road Initiative is an important practice in facilitating the construction of a community with a shared future for mankind. It has taken root, grown and blossomed, and borne fruits in the Golden Bay of Bengal on the land of hope in South Asia. Young people should work together to meet challenges and become participants, practitioners and contributors to building a community with a shared future for mankind.

Chen Dongxiao, President of SIIS, extended a warm welcome in his keynote speech to the Bangladesh Young Leaders Delegation to China. He then introduced SIIS’s history of development and international cooperation. He stressed that CCS is the latest achievement of the “integration of think tank and action tank” jointly built by Chinese universities and think tanks and Bangladeshi partners with the coordination of SIIS. It is a think tank that promotes the sharing of state-governance experience and the creation of knowledge between the two countries. CCS not only allows more Chinese experts and scholars to “visit Bangladesh”, but also allows Bangladeshi counterparts to “go deep into China”. Therefore, CCS establishes Bangladeshi high-level visiting scholars programs and young leaders delegation programs every year. “Having a global vision, pursuing excellence, and shouldering the responsibility of promoting world peace, development and prosperity” should be qualities of young leaders. Over the past few decades, Bangladesh’s achievements in economic and social development are closely related to its domestic political stability, strong continuity of economic policies, and independent diplomacy. Therefore, they have a lot in common with China’s successful experience in development over the past few decades. The delegation pays visits to three cities including Kunming, Shanghai and Beijing, which will help to enhance its members’ understanding and recognition of Chinese modernization, and will also bring inspiration on how to realize Bangladesh’s Smart Bangladesh Vision 2041.

The delegation leader, Associate Professor MD Mizanur Rahaman, thanked SIIS for carefully organizing the visit for the delegation. He stated that Bangladesh would actively learn useful experiences from China and draw on China’s strengths to make up for its weaknesses in promoting economic and social development. Bangladeshi universities also hope to communicate and interact with Chinese universities for lasting bilateral educational cooperation. The members of the delegation are all outstanding young people from well-known Bangladeshi universities, think tanks, media agencies and other institutions. Its itinerary in China includes diversified and rich activities. Associate Professor MD Mizanur Rahaman believed that all members’ knowledge and understanding of China as well as their study of China’s development experience would be strengthened. He indicated that the delegation would cherish the opportunities brought by this visit and actively contribute to promoting China-Bangladesh friendly relations.

After that, Professor Yang Jiemian, Chairman of SIIS Academic Affairs Council gave the delegation a special lecture on “China’s Overall Foreign Policy and Relations with Developing Countries”. He first shared the many similarities between China and Bangladesh. The two countries have similar experiences in modern development and share the common goals of pursuing national rejuvenation, world peace and development, and win-win results. Both countries belong to developing countries and are members of the Global South. They support each other in economic and social development and international affairs. Professor Yang Jiemian shared his ideas on China’s diplomacy in five aspects. First, he talked about domestic and overseas environments for China. As the second largest economy in the world, China witnesses growing composite national strength, but in the meantime, it also faces a number of domestic and overseas challenges like many other countries. Second, he mentioned that while China’s diplomacy is committed to serving national interests, it also develops in coordination with global interests. On one hand, it strives to enhance China’s composite national strength and safeguard our sovereignty and territorial integrity. On the other hand, it consults and cooperates with other countries to jointly expand the world market. Besides, it reforms and creates international mechanisms with true multilateralism. Third, he talked about four strategic highlights: promoting the building of relations among major powers featuring peaceful coexistence, overall stability and balanced development; improving the environment in neighboring regions; strengthening relations with developing countries; and be committed to establishing a fairer and more reasonable international order and system. Fourth, he shared opinions on some special methodologies. He emphasized the importance of historical perspective, holistic perspective and dialectics, which specifically refer to order of priority, flexibility, professionalism and the root causes of problems. Fifth, he talked about the three major initiatives of China and developing countries. The three initiatives are important pillars of a community with a shared future for mankind, which require unremitting efforts from developing countries and the international community.

The opening ceremony was chaired by Liu Zongyi, Director of Center for South Asian Studies and Director of CCS. Zhu Juhua, Director of the Department of International Cooperation and Exchanges of SIIS, Ma Jiaguo, Deputy Director of the Liaison and Coordination Department of the Shanghai Foreign Affairs Office(presiding), Li Hongmei, Deputy Director of CCS, Tan Chenyi, Assistant Researcher of the Institute for International Strategic and Security Studies of SIIS, and Zhu Shicheng from the Department of Think Tank Development and Scientific Research Management participated in the ceremony.