From October 3 to 5, Vice President Xie Yuan attended the 18th biennial Edgar Snow Symposium held in Kansas City, Missouri, U.S. and delivered a speech at the opening session. Minister Xu Xueyuan of the Chines Embassy to the U.S. ,Acting Consul General Liu Jun of the Chinese Consulate General in Chicago, Governor Jeff Colyer of Kansas, Mayor pro tem Scott Wagner of Kansas City, President Nancy Hill and President-Elect Jim Mckusick of the Edgar Snow Memorial Foundation and more than 200 other delegates from China and the U.S. attended the symposium.
In his speech, Vice President Xie Yuan said, The Chinese people will never forget, 48 years ago, Mr. Snow, together with Chairman Mao, ascended the Tiananmen Gate Tower, an act signaling the forging of friendship between China and U.S.,sending a good will to the other side of the Pacific Ocean, and devoting civil wisdom and power to the normalization of China-U.S. Relations. Next year marks the 40th anniversary of China-U.S. diplomatic relations. Over the past four decades, the two countries have witnessed dramatic changes across the world. China-U.S. relations have evolved profoundly and will continue to grow. Today, we are gathered here to honor the memory of Edgar Snow, to revitalize and promote his legacy, to cherish and preserve the sound momentum he has created, and to unleash the full potential of people-to-people diplomacy, imbuing new energy to a sound, steady and growing China-U.S. Relationship.
During the symposium, Director General Zhang Heqiang attended panel discussion Global Economic Development and Cultural Exchange. The CPAFFC delegation also witnessed the passing of a Resolution by Kansas City Council recognizing its Sister Cities relations with Yan’an and Xi’an and visited the Edgar Snow Reading Room in Miller-Nichols Library in UMKC.
The Edgar Snow Symposium is a biennial event. The 18th symposium opened on October 4 and lasted 4 days. Edgar Snow, American writer and journalist, was born in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1905. In 1936, in spite of difficulties, he visited Shaan-Gan-Ning Boarder Region and completed a book Red Star Over China, which extensively covered facts about the CPC and the Red Army, unveiled the Chinese revolution to the world and made an international impact. This year marks the 80th anniversary of the publication of Red Star Over China.
