This week, a ten-member delegation of Tsinghua University from China visits AYY. We will publish a brief post each day concerning the events and issues of the day. Here is some background on the history and purpose of our cooperation to bear in mind when reading the posts.
The cooperation with Tsinghua Student Union began in 2004 when Oskari Nokso-Koivisto, SYL’s chairperson at that time, met the chairperson of Tsinghua Student Union Wang Songtao in a conference in Sweden. They got along very well and Oskari brought Songtao to Finland to meet important leaders in politics and business life and to spend the nights in the depths of Otaniemi. Their friendship continued and they decided to extend their personal cooperation to the organisational level in 2008. TKY took the responsibility for the cooperation and the first delegations visited each other in 2009.
In the autumn of 2013, the Memorandum of Understanding was signed with the Chinese, in which they agreed that Tsinghua will send a ten-member delegation to Finland every year and AYY will visit China every other year. It was also agreed that an alumni network will be established around the cooperation to maintain the established relations with China.
AYY and Tsinghua delegation meeting Prime Minister Katainen in August 2013
And why do we cooperate with such a distant student union? Tsinghua University is one of the world’s most prestigious universities where alumni and former active student union members, in particular, have positions in all important decision-making organs and corporate management in China. That is why it is very likely that some of the Chinese who have visited Finland will eventually achieve such positions. In the future, good relations with these persons may play an important role both in politics and business life.
During the week, our guests became familiar with Finnish companies, society, political system and, of course, culture and the beautiful nature. Their schedule was tight but we made lasting friendships that will bear fruit in the future.
If you want to read about the last year’s visit, the blog posts can be found here (only in Finnish):
/blogi/2014/08/25/ayy-hallitukset-kiinassa/
/blogi/2014/12/16/tsinghuan-ylioppilaskunta-ayyn-vieraana/
