Young Friends from China and Australia,

The seventh “When Koala Meets Panda” China-Australia Short Video Contest is officially launched! Since first held in 2017, the event has received strong support from all sectors of Australia and the active participation of young people in both countries. Over the past six years, young friends have promoted the whole Australia to understand China better through their punchy short videos, and also helped overseas Chinese community and Chinese students in Australia better integrate into the local life.

This year’s contest is themed “reunion” as China-Australia relations have been stabilized and improved and economic, cultural as well as personnel exchanges between our two countries have been increasing. After three years after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Chinese students have finally ceased online learning and returned to Australia, as have Australian friends who came to China for work, travel, and cultural exchange. Not long ago, China resumed outbound group tours to Australia and China Southern Airlines also announced the resumption of the Brisbane-Guangzhou non-stop flights, the link between China and Australia will hence become even stronger. Amity between the people holds the key to sound state-to-state relations. Only with intensive care can the tree of China-Australia friendship and cooperation be flourishing. We hope that more friends will participate in the contest, record and tell the story of their “reunion” with China or Australia through their lens, so as to enhance mutual understanding, improve our peoples’ impression of each other, deepen cultural and people-to-people exchanges and promote solid progress in cooperation.

I wish the contest a complete success!