Many of today's conflicts and confrontations are caused by an escalation of hostilities due to a lack of understanding and trust. And fellowships like the WPI certainly play a role in reducing the misunderstanding between different peoples.

Although people might be different, they can get along just fine by respecting each other and their differences.

China should establish something like the WPI so journalists from around the world can see both the good and bad things in China and then make their own judgments.

US investor Stephen Schwarzman has already engaged in such an endeavor by creating a $300 million Schwarzman Scholarship at Tsinghua University in Beijing to bring students around the world to China.

Both the US and China should simply spend more on such exchange and less on their militaries. The upcoming sixth session of China-US Strategic and Economic Dialogue and the subsequent Fifth China-US High-Level Consultation on People-to-People Exchanges are the perfect platform to advance the cause of exchanges between the two nations and two peoples to reduce the deep misunderstanding and a lack of understanding between them.

The author, based in Washington DC, is deputy editor of China Daily USA. chenweihua@chinadailyusa.com

(China Daily 06/20/2014 page8)