Executive MPA Graduate from Hainan, China Visits Salt Lake City

On July 12, Mr. Xi Jinsong, a graduate of the UofU’s Executive MPA Program in 2011, visited over a celebratory dinner in Salt Lake City with former Professors Rick Green and Steve Ott and colleagues from his days here at the UofU. He stopped in Salt Lake City on his return to Haikou, Hainan from meetings in Washington, DC. Xi Jinsong reminisced with the others about his many wonderful experiences during his 18 months here and the impact the MPA experience has had on his career.

Xi Jinsong is now Vice President of the prestigious National Institute for South China Sea Studies located in Haikou, Hainan, PRC. The NISCS “. . . specializes in research on a variety of South China Sea issues, including neighboring countries’ policies on the South China Sea, international law and SCS disputes, peaceful settlement of the Spratly Islands dispute, resources development and environmental protection strategies, and institutions and mechanisms for developing the maritime economy and the building of the maritime silk road.”[1]

Following the dinner, Xi Jinsong wrote:    

. . . I am fortunate that I met you (Rick Green and Steve Ott) again and resumed the contact, it's so wonderful! In these days, the China-US relations have experienced ups and downs, but I firmly think, as President Xi Jinping mentioned, that there are one thousand reasons to make China-US relations good, not a single reason to break it. I highly advocate to enhance people to people relationship between our two countries, and deepen friendship between two countries, which set the fundamental interests of our two states, as well as the international society.

It is my grave and strong hope to seeing both of you in Hainan, which is also a sincere desire from my cohort members in Hainan, you know you have more than one hundred students in Hainan miss you and looking forward to seeing you again after so many years!

Xi Jinsong would love to reconnect with any of his professors and colleagues. His email address is xijinsong@nanhai.org.cn.

[1] From the website of the National Institute for South China Sea Studies, July 2024.