On January 11, 2025, the Chinese Embassy in the United States held the 2025 Spring Festival Gala for Chinese and American youths. Chinese Ambassador to the United States Xie Feng attended the event and delivered remarks. Over 500 students  from both countries and representatives of the U.S. educational community participated.

Ambassador Xie extended festive greetings to the guests, and said that over the past year, under the guidance of the two heads of state, the San Francisco vision has been gradually turned into reality. One of the highlights of China-U.S. relations in the past year was that President Xi Jinping’s initiative to invite 50,000 youth Americans for study or exchange programs yielded fruitful outcomes. Our youths have actively reached out to each other, learned from each other, and also raced to the top. They have striven to be pioneers in developing a right perception toward one another, and have grown into a staunch force for mutually beneficial cooperation, injecting new blood into the efforts to stabilize and improve China-U.S. relations.

Ambassador Xie said he believed that the youths from both countries will instill more hope and vigor into China-U.S. relations in the year ahead. We hope to establish a new vision for China-U.S. relations, to move China-U.S. relations forward along the track of stable, sound and sustainable development. We hope to write new stories of China-U.S. goodwill, and encourage more young Americans to be part of the “50,000 in five years” initiative, promote dialogue and cooperation, enhance people-to-people exchanges, and carry forward the goodwill between our two peoples. We also hope to open up new space for educational cooperation, to build more bridges for our two countries to complement each other, and contribute more to making the world a better place.

Chinese and American students then co-presented a colorful cultural performance. The gala opened with the song China in the Lights, which was followed by a piano duet and a beautiful traditional dance, and culminated in the chorus performance of Our China by American students. Youths from both countries also jointly explored the Cultural Fair, experienced sugar painting, tried on hanfu, learned Chinese calligraphy and made dumplings, to soak in the unique charm of the Spring Festival. In celebrating the upcoming spring and building friendships, they continued to write a new chapter in China-U.S. people-to-people exchanges.