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Mr. Shangkong | Overseas study offers young education on foreign policy

Sending students to schools abroad is just as vitally important to mainland China's interests as attracting more talents from the US

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US First Lady Michelle Obama talks with students who practise table tennis while visiting the Second High School in Beijing. Photo: Xinhua

US first lady Michelle Obama is absolutely right about the importance of overseas education, and that is exactly what the sons and daughters of many former and current mainland leaders have already experienced or are eager to experience.

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Obama just forgot to mention that in her speech at Peking University.

Speaking at the prestigious institution on Saturday, Obama said overseas education would allow students from the United States and China to gain a better understanding of the host country and could help convince them that the success of each country was linked with that of the other.

She cited examples of ordinary Americans and Chinese who went to the other country on scholarships for studies and research.

A day after her speech, the ran a report, citing Obama, headlined: "Studying abroad remains vital ingredient of US foreign policy".

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It can be argued that studying abroad is also vitally important to China's interests, which I strongly believe to be the case.

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