Leading scholars from China and the United States are stressing the importance of seizing the opportunity to improve bilateral ties ushered in by the summit between the two countries earlier this month.

At the China-US High-Level Think Tank Dialogue in Beijing on Wednesday, the attending scholars called for expanding education exchanges, boosting genuine knowledge of one another and keeping areas of collaboration such as climate in focus.

Earlier this month in Beijing, the two heads of state agreed on the vision to build a constructive China-US relationship of strategic stability.

Kathryn Logan, director of China Climate Hub and Climate Diplomacy at the Asia Society's Policy Institute, pointed to addressing climate change and clean technologies when discussing how to help the new phase of constructive strategic stability to last long.

"Climate was once viewed as a stabilizing pillar of the relationship, with cooperation between the US and China paving the way for the Paris Agreement being adopted in 2015," she said.

The first priority is the necessity of building "a future framework that does not hold cooperation hostage to the rest of the relationship", she added.

Yu Yunquan, vice-president of the China International Communications Group, said the China-US summit "charted the course for the relationship in the upcoming three years and beyond".

"There has been consensus between the two sides on being constructive … And as we seek strategic stability, we make sure that the ups and downs in the relations are generally under control," he said.

Yu said the near future "marks a great period of opportunity for dialogues between policy experts and people-to-people exchanges between China and the US", and there are more discussions to be held by agencies such as his group and the Carter Center.

Sharing knowledge

Carla Freeman, senior lecturer for international affairs and director of the Foreign Policy Institute at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies, said, "We could focus on giving (US) teachers more experience and time in China so that they could share more knowledge and understanding of China with their own students."

"I hope we will continue dialogues between our leaders … and try to get education exchange moved up on the agenda for discussions between the two countries," she said.

She warned that "the dearth of China knowledge is becoming increasingly apparent in the US and the policy community in Washington is taking note".

Neysun Mahboubi, director of the Penn Project on the Future of US-China Relations at the University of Pennsylvania, said, "When we talk about enhancing mutual understanding, it really should be rooted in enhancing genuine knowledge."

"It has to be real knowledge about the other side, and I think that idea is one that we can't lose sight of," he added.

Ren Hongsheng, professor and associate dean of the School of Political Science and Public Administration at the China University of Political Science and Law, said there is a "deficit of misunderstanding" between the two countries.

Ren said it is highly necessary to further carry out China's initiative of inviting 50,000 young US students to China for exchange and study programs in a five-year span.

"It is crucial to establish some regular projects or institutional arrangements (for educational exchanges), and this helps form key networks which are essential for solving certain problems and enabling consistent mutual understanding," he said.

zhangyunbi@chinadaily.com.cn