BEIJING -- Peng Liyuan, wife of Chinese President Xi Jinping, on Thursday attended the Bond with Kuliang: 2025 China-US youth friendship event and delivered a speech at the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries.

Peng also watched a video about the Bond with Kuliang: 2025 China-US Youth Choir Festival. Elyn MacInnis, founder of Friends of Kuliang, and Luca Berrone, Xi's friend from Iowa, shared their stories of Kuliang, as well as their experiences of China-US people-to-people exchange and local cooperation. They expressed their deep affection for China and their gratitude to President Xi for his concern for the youth of both countries. They also said that they will continue contributing to promoting the US-China friendship.

US youth representatives shared their experiences of visiting China, and said they are willing to become new-generation friendship ambassadors, carrying forward great stories of friendship between the two countries.

In her speech, Peng said that the century-old story of Kuliang and President Xi's deep friendship with his old friends in Iowa spanning over 40 years epitomize the China-US friendship.

Though the two countries have different histories, cultures and languages, the Chinese and American peoples love their families and are kind, friendly, hardworking and practical, meaning they are perfectly capable of becoming good friends and partners, she said.

Over the year since President Xi proposed China's initiative to welcome 50,000 young Americans to China for exchange and study programs over a five-year period, many young people from the United States have been invited to visit China. While gaining first-hand experience of the real China, they have made new friends and written new chapters in the China-US friendship, Peng said.

Noting that youth is the future of the country, as well as the future of friendship, Peng called on young people to be the inheritors of the China-US friendship, and promoters of peace and amity. She also called on them to build a bridge of friendship between the two countries, and to contribute their youthful strength to a better future for both nations.

Before the event, Peng met with MacInnis and Berrone, expressing appreciation for their longtime dedication to the cause of China-US friendship. She encouraged them to continue making active efforts to enhance exchange and mutual understanding between the two peoples.