On April 26th, China's senior diplomat, former Ambassador of China to France Prof. Wu Jianmin visited UIC and attended UIC's 27th High Table Dinner. As the guest speaker, Prof. Wu delivered a speech themed "Shanghai Expo--China is Sharing Her Growth with The World" to over 150 UIC students and staff, and was later invited to be an Honorary Professor of UIC by UIC Executive Vice President Prof. Kwok Siu-Tong. Dean of UIC Division Humanities and Social Sciences Prof. Jeff Wilkinson hosted the dinner.
Prof. Wu Jianmin is member of the Foreign Policy Advisory Group of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, member and Vice President of the European Academy of Sciences, member of International Eurasian Academy of Sciences, and Honorary President of the International Bureau of Exhibitions.
During his speech, Prof. Wu highlighted the importance of effective communications based on China's diplomatic history and his career-related experiences. Prof. Wu said, "During the past 42 years in my diplomatic career, I met many Chinese delegations abroad, and I found some Chinese emissaries were not very good at communication." In this sense, he showed high appreciation for UIC's education such as High Table Dinner which taught students communication skills.
He regarded the failure of transferring the correct messages to the audience as a big problem to the maintenance of relationships. He considered that understanding what audience expected of the speakers could make a difference. To illustrate the art of communication, he recalled his experiences of successfully bidding for hosting the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai. In a press conference, six ambassadors from China, Argentina, Poland, Mexico, Korean and Australia were required to deliver public speeches. Prof. Wu on behalf of China was the only one to extend the speech without speech notes. Prof. Wu said the communication technique made him stand out against other ambassadors from the other five countries.
When asked about what had led to his remarkable life, he advised UIC students to pick up opportunities at the right time on the premise of solid knowledge base. His response gained positive feedbacks from the audience.
Before Prof. Wu's theme speech, Prof. Kwok gave a welcome speech in which he emphasized the role played by UIC on cultivating intelligent and dignified talents with international exposure. He said, UIC students were responsible for developing humanity as members of global communities and helping China grow internationally and competently in economic, political and cultural areas.
Reporter: Huang Shanqing
Photos taken by Li Xinran, Fannie Liu
Editor: Richard Xu
Media and Public Relations Office
