Seeds of China-US friendship sown long ago, now stand as towering woods.. Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

"I am absolutely going crazy right now," said American teacher Ronald Sakolsky after being mentioned in the Chinese leader's address at the welcome banquet at the White House on Thursday evening local time.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife, Peng Liyuan, on Thursday evening attended a state dinner held by US President Donald Trump and his wife, Melania Trump, at the White House.

In his address, Xi said the story of Sakolsky, who more than 20 years ago gave financial support to Chinese desert control worker Yin Yuzhen for her tree-planting effort, touches the hearts of many Chinese people and stands as a shining example of the friendly exchanges between the two peoples, the Xinhua News Agency reported. 

In a video sent to the Global Times, Sakolsky said he cannot believe that the Chinese leader talked about him.

"I believe that he has extended the hand, as well as President Trump has extended the hand across the ocean... I can only hope that the Chinese and American media will take the positives from this meeting and this dinner and pass on the message that there needs to be a relationship between China and the US," Sakolsky said in the video.

"Miss Yin and my story is not a story to put us in front of the cameras or in front of a microphone, but it's a story to show that two simple people from two very diverse cultures can get along. If we can get along, then 10 more people can get along, then thousands can get along, then millions can get along," he said.

"I cannot believe that he talked about me, a simple social studies teacher from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the White House state dinner speech," said Sakolsky. 

In 1999, Sakolsky came to China as an American teacher and taught in Luoyang, Central China's Henan Province. During that time, he learned about Yin Yuzhen, a Chinese desertification-control worker who planted trees to combat desertification in the Mu Us Desert, and subsequently funded Yin's purchase of saplings. Over the past 20-plus years, the once-barren desert landscape has gradually turned into a forest.

In August this year, Sakolsky returned to China, reuniting with Yin in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and seeing firsthand how the trees planted with his support had grown over the years. Moreover, he repeatedly expressed amazement at China's development achievements, saying that China "has already entered the 22nd century." 

This story of China-US people-to-people friendship, spanning the Pacific and more than 20 years, has been reported by the media and moved many Chinese netizens.

Global Times