Desire of Chinese, American people to reach out to each other is simple, sincere: Global Times editorial

When more American people are moved by the real China and choose to join the "China Travel" army to remove the "filter," the digital age has given the people of the two countries new channels for communication and also contributed to the "snowball" effect of China-US exchanges. The life of people-to-people exchanges has a strong vitality precisely because it is rooted in the most basic resonances of human nature: the convenience of the mobile network, the streets that make people feel safe even late at night and the friendly and hospitable Chinese people who are completely strangers. These images do not intentionally render anything, but allow the viewers to naturally feel the intersection of an ancient civilization and modern innovation.

Similarly, when Chinese netizens asked their American friends to help revise their English compositions and when both sides used "cat tax" to break the ice and interact with each other using popular memes, cultural differences, instead, have become a catalyst for better understanding, and this kind of interaction across borders just proves the power of sincerity and authenticity.

The desire of the people in China and the US to "make more visits and exchanges" has always provided important momentum for the stable advancement of bilateral relations. The deeper significance of promoting people-to-people exchanges lies in the fact that the younger generation is becoming the main force behind these interactions.

A previous Pew Research Center poll showed that the percentage of Americans aged 18 to 29 with negative views of China is 11 percent lower than the average. According to a 2023 report by The Economist, Americans under the age of 45 are relatively less likely to view China as an "enemy." Whether it's the friendship trees planted by Iowa middle school students and their Chinese partners, the exchange visits between Jingshan School and Newton Public Schools resuming after a five-year hiatus, or the high school student delegation from Washington State singing the Chinese song "On the Fields of Hope" at Tsinghua University High School, these moments suggest that future China-US relations will be built upon more shared memories created by the next generations in both countries.

At the recently concluded China Development Forum 2025, about one-third of the representatives of the 86 multinational companies were from the US, the largest proportion of any country. China has consistently upheld an open and inclusive stance, creating opportunities for more foreign friends to visit and understand the country as well as for more foreign businesses to deepen their presence in the Chinese market. Mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation are the right way for the two great powers, China and the US, to get along with each other, and they also apply at the grassroots level.

The hope of the China-US relationship lies in the people, its foundation is in our societies and its future depends on the youth. Encouraging more interactions and communication between the people of China and the US and allowing genuine voices to cut through the fog of prejudice is both the call of the times and the direction for the future. When more individuals, like IShowSpeed and the "RedNote families," build bridges with sincerity, every grassroots encounter will write a new chapter of possibility. By reaching out to each other, the people of China and the US demonstrate that the door to better bilateral relations is opened by the people - and once opened, it will not be closed again.