hanghai International Studies University (SISU) President Li Yansong, attended China-U.S. University Presidents and Think Tank Forum at Columbia University in New York, which was themed Sino-U.S. relations in the next 50 years, and visited United Nations (UN) Headquarters this September.

The forum attendees discussed on the development of Sino-U.S. relations in cultural exchange and the impact of Belt and Road Initative on education.

SISU President Li gave a keynote speech on Sino-U.S. social and people-to-people dialogue mechanism, in which he shared the cooperative experience in running educational programs, communication and exchanges of faculty and students. He also thanked China Scholarship Council (CSC) and other institutions for their contribution to the Sino-U.S. cultural exchange, and proposed to award those contributors.

Li was also invited to visit the UN Headquarters in New York, by U.N. official Peter Dawkins, who is the director of the Internet Affairs Division of the UN Department of Public Information. Dawkins spoke highly of the close partnership between SISU and the UN.

Fifteen SISU students had had internships for the UN since Jiang Hua, the Director of UN Department of Journalism and Media, visited SISU and signed a cooperation agreement in 2014, according to Zhao Leibo, the principal of the UN Chinese Network. UN Documents with words totaled over one million have been translated by SISU students. SISU’s Graduate Institute of Interpretation and Translation (GIIT) completed translating the Chinese version of Basic Facts about the United Nations in 2014, for which Ban Ki-moon, the former Secretary of the UN, prefaced and gave to Chinese President Xi as a gift.

SISU President Li said at the visit that he valued the cooperation between SISU and the UN and SISU would continue supporting more cooperative projects. He said he hopes there will be more chances, expecting for SISU faculty and students to participate in the work of the UN, and there will be more projects being introduced to SISU.

He also emphasized that SISU would focus on preparing international talents proficient in languages for international organizations, and would deepen the cooperation on " cultivating inter-disciplinary talents who master strong skills in both cross-cultural communication and their specific academic fields.

Li met the SISU students who were working at the UN Department of Journalism and Media, and the Department of Conference Affairs and Management. He appreciated UN officials for their guidance and assistance to SISU interns and teachers who worked for the UN.

During his stay in the United States, Li also visited the North America Branch of China Daily and the Xinhua News Agency located in New York Times Square.

SISU is one of the two non-integrated institutions participating in the Sino-U.S. University Presidents and Think Tank Forum. By September, 14 interns from SISU's GIIT had been sent to different UN Headquarters to work in translation, interpretation, verbatim records, terminology management, website editing and other major language services of Chinese, English, Arabic or Spanish.