People to People Exchanges between China and Central & Eastern European Countries under the COVID-19 Pandemic

SONG, Lilei (songlilei@tongji.edu.cn)
Lilei Song is a professor in the School of Political Science and International Relations, as well as the Vice-Director of the Center for European Studies at Tongji University. She has published more than 30 articles in academic periodicals, and edited two proceedings on EU-China relations. Professor Song was a Post Doctoral Fellow at the Corvinus University of Budapest from 2014-2015, supported by the Erasmus Mundus GATE program; she was also an academic visitor at the University of Oxford China Centre in 2015-2016. Professor Song’s research interests include China-EU relations, Chinese public diplomacy, and EU’s neighborhood policy. 

Research Overview
People-to-people exchanges, political dialogue, and economic and trade cooperation constitute the three pillars of cooperation between China and Central and Eastern Europe. China has established a relatively clear road map for the cultural exchanges between the Central and Eastern European countries. The list of achievements of the previous China-CEEC summit has made detailed plan and promoted cultural exchanges step by step. Since the outbreak of the epidemic in Central and Eastern European countries, China's aid to anti-epidemic measures in Central and Eastern European countries has had a positive effect on enhancing the awareness of local people about China. The "all-round, multi-level, and wide-ranging" mode of People to People exchanges still plays a solid role after the outbreak of the epidemic.