The Institute of Area Studies, PKU held the sixth New Buds Salon on June 6, 2019. Shi Mingde, former Chinese Ambassador to Germany, was invited to give a talk on the topic “Current International Situation, China-Europe and China-Germany relations.” The salon was moderated by Prof. Huang Liaoyu, director of PKU's German Studies Center. Shi Mingde started by introducing the complex international situation in the contemporary world and emphasized the significant changes in the setup of the world and ongoing US-China trade friction. He pointed out that the world now is entirely different from the Cold War era. Countries around the world are all closely knit together in the age of globalization and no one can keep themselves out of any affair. He then turned to the economic relations between China and Germany, and stated that economic ties between the two countries have been developing steadily in a positive direction, marked by the fact that China has become Germany's largest trade partner in recent years. In the end, Ambassador Shi Mingde underlined the importance of cooperation and stressed that confrontation does not solve problems and that a win-win outcome could only result from opening-up.

After the talk, four students from the School of International Studies, the School of Economics, the Department of History, and the Department of German Language and Literature voiced their opinions and communicated with the ambassador on the topics of European monetary policy, the economic structural complementarity between China and the EU, the foreign environments of China and Germany, and populism in Europe. Faculty members and other students that attended the talk also actively interacted with the ambassador on issues such as Germany's economy, party politics, and environmental protection. Ambassador Shi Mingde commended the PKU students for their broad knowledge and sharp minds.

This session of the New Buds Salon was held by the Institute of Area Studies, PKU. Among the attendees of the session were members of the German Studies Center, PKU, Prof. Lian Yuru at PKU's School of International Studies, Dr. Lu Baiyu, Assistant Professor Li Rui, and Assistant Professor Mao Mingchao of the Department of German Language and Literature, as well as Dr. Zhang Hui at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.