China's Vice-Premier Liu Yandong on Monday challenged university presidents from both China and the United States to deepen and broaden cooperation in higher education. The presidents and chancellors of more than 50 major US and Chinese universities met at Rice University in Houston for the US-China University Presidents Roundtable. They discussed global education, research collaboration and cultural exchange.

Chinese President Xi Jinping attended a gathering of more than 3,000 Japanese visitors in Beijing Saturday to support people-to-people exchanges between the two nations. "The China-Japan friendship is rooted in the people, and the future of the bilateral relationship is in the hand of the people of the two countries," Xi said as he delivered a speech at the meeting at the Great Hall of the People in downtown Beijing.

A good Muslim engagement strategy supported by the U.S. proved effective in 2005 in Belgium in creating a model for how to engage 500,000 Muslims largely from Turkey and Morocco. The U.S. Embassy in Brussels, together with nongovernmental organizations and private sponsors from the United States and Belgium, brought together an impressive group of American Muslims to meet with an equally impressive group of Belgian Muslims to discuss everyday practical issues regarding Muslim participation in society.

As one of the major events of the China-U.S. High-Level Consultation on People-to-People Exchange, "Access China" plays a significant role in promoting Sino-US cultural and educational exchanges and strengthening development and cooperation in the areas of culture and education.

The recent violence along the Line of Control (LoC) between India and Pakistan in Kashmir threatens confrontation yet again between the two nuclear armed neighbors. It also underscores the need to rescue the fragile Track II process from irrelevance, because ultimately it is through genuine people-to-people exchange that long-term peace between the two nations is possible.