On October 9, 2019, a 11-member US Congressional Assistant delegation, led by press secretary Robert Avery, visited WHU as a start of their 3-day tour in Hubei Province, China. The members had a brief talk with teachers and students in WHU’s Administrative Building after their sightseeing on campus.
After watching an introductory video clip of WHU, the assistants and students from different majors made self-introduction followed by greetings from both sides. The teachers also expressed warm welcome to the visitors.
US congressional assistant delegation and WHU students making self-introduction
Out of curiosity about the assistants’ routine, a student asked what it was like to work in the Congress. Yekaterina Nazaretove, an assistant on military legislation described their job as “never-getting-bored”. Robert Avery added that having years of experiences being a journalist, his job now as a press secretary is even more “exciting”. “Our daily routine really depends on what happens that day, but basically it’s changing every day”, explained Robert.
Robert Avery started their questions by asking about the tuition burden issue of Chinese students while Armita Pedrameazi also expressed such concerns by showing that high tuition had discouraged a lot of American high school graduates. They were very surprised by WHU students’ low tuition of 2700RMB in average, not to mention various scholarships that reward those with outstanding academic performance or support those from low-income families. “Students in WHU are lucky enjoying top resources in China with such low tuition, compared to their counterparts in Europe and US”, said senior consultant Anthony Cordesman. To know more about WHU students, they also mentioned job hunting problems for graduates. Students suggested solutions such as studying for a master’s degree or taking dual degree courses to improve competitiveness and also pointed out that it is not so hard for graduates to find a job in China as it is still a land with huge potential..
Robert Avery answering questions
Global hotspots like trade frictions between China and US and the development of Sino-US relations were also discussed in the talk. Students planning to go to US for further study are very concerned about the tightened visa examination. Armita Pedrameazi replied that the Congress had noticed the individual’s will of academic development and was working to alleviate the negative influences of political disputes.
“The meeting gave us a chance to have face-to-face conversations with senator assistants upon the common concerns of tightened visa examination and a shortened length of visa validity for Chinese students, especially students from STEM disciplines, which has laid the ground for mutual understanding”, said Yena Wei, a postgraduate student in WHU.
Assistants with WHU’s teachers and students
Issues like media, economic development and bilateral dialogue were discussed by the two sides towards the end of the meeting. Xiaojing Liu, a student from the school of printing and packaging also appreciated this precious opportunity to talk face to face with US congressional assistants and looked forward to more such opportunities to promote mutual understanding and cultural exchange. “A lot of people are still working on it to make the ‘two world leaders’ cooperate better, which I can see from this meeting”, said positively by an English major in WHU after the discussion.
Photos by Zhao Yifan
Edited by Wan Qian, Zhou Siyan, Wang Wei & Hu Sijia
