The China-Europe Talent Forum 2024 was held in Beijing on Tuesday to explore the key roles of talents in the development of China-Europe relations and further deepen bilateral exchanges and cooperation in relevant fields.
Themed "Sharing Together, Growing Together, Winning Together - Bridging Continents: Fostering Future-fit Talent Development," the forum gathered more than 240 attendees including Chinese and foreign dignitaries, renowned scholars, representatives of international organizations, Nobel laureates, academicians and experts.
Featuring keynote speeches, symposiums and summit dialogues, the event discussed topics covering science and technology, talents, culture, economy and trade, as well as international sports, aiming to further promote practical cooperation in the field of human resources between China and Europe.
"I think the development in China, the development of everything, especially in talent, is very big in the last years. We need to link each other to get more relationship between Europe and China because we have to share the talent. We have to get more relationship between Europe and China in products, in services, and especially in talent, in knowledge, in future, in intelligence," said Antonio Miguel Carmona, president of the Spanish Friends of China Association.
The forum saw the release of the Global Workforce of the Future 2024, Global City Talent Retention Index 2024 and other talent research results, providing important reference and frontier analysis of talent-related issues.
Beijing, as an international hub for exchanges and sci-tech innovation, has vowed to keep optimizing policies and services to provide a better stage for global talents to develop themselves.
"We will implement more proactive, open and effective talent policies, so that Beijing, as an international metropolis, can attract and gather more internationalized talents, and also to foster more internationalized talents. We hope that Beijing will become an important talent center in the world, and we will make unremitting efforts to this end," said Zhang Tianyang, executive dean of the Beijing Institute of Talent Development Strategy.
The forum catalyzed a number of China-Europe talent exchange and cooperation projects, including the signing of a memorandum of understanding in support of the establishment of World Science and Technology Organization in Beijing, the establishment of an internship base between the Peking University of China and Switzerland's Adecco Group, as well as the setup of a China-Europe talent innovation and entrepreneurship center.
"We have reached a lot of cooperation intentions with the European side on the integrated development of education, technology and talents. Through the cooperation in talents and closer people-to-people connections, I believe that all undertakings will achieve a better and win-win development situation," Zhang said.
"The challenges that we have on both sides are really very, very similar. In Europe and in China, we have an aging population. In Europe and in China, we have more and more IT, namely AI, which is shaping work/life in China and in Europe. What we propose is that we make it more easier for researchers, but also for young professionals, and even students in some cases, to share experiences and go to the other country," said the Swiss Ambassador to China Jurg Burri.
Since 2018, the China-Europe Talent Forum has been successfully held for five sessions and has gradually developed into an important platform for talent exchange and cooperation between the two sides.
China-Europe Talent Forum 2024 held in Beijing
Demonstrations took place across the United States following the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran, with participants calling for an immediate end to the war that threatens to spiral out of control in the Middle East.
Joint military strikes launched by the U.S. and Israel on Iran on Saturday morning have triggered a sharp escalation across the Middle East in recent days, setting off waves of missile exchanges, mounting casualties, and far-reaching political and security repercussions.
Meanwhile, a U.S.-Israeli attack on a girls' elementary school in the southern Iranian city of Minab which killed at least 165 children and staff on Saturday has caused considerable outrage.
The deepening crisis has sparked demonstrations in several U.S. cities, with many expressing their concerns over the consequences of yet another U.S. military intervention in the Middle East.
In Manhattan, New York City, protesters carried anti-war signs reading "Hands Off Iran" and "Stop the War On Iran," urging the Trump administration to immediately cease all military operations against Iran.
Among them was Mohammad Esmaeil Khodami, a 26-year-old Iranian who strongly condemned the attacks launched by the U.S. and Israel. He even suggested the operation is designed to divert attention away from other issues and questions currently facing the Trump administration.
"The bombing in this war is a war for Israel. It's a war because, frankly, I believe it's also a war to cover up the crimes of the Trump administration, right? It's a play, it's a ploy for distraction. It's a move to try to garner popularity and to try to gain that like wartime sensational popularity. It has nothing to do with liberating Iranian people. They don't care about Iranian people at all. They would sooner see us all dead than come forward about the crimes that they've committed," he said.
On Monday evening, dozens of protesters gathered outside the White House in Washington, D.C., to rally against the U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran, with demonstrators urging the Trump administration not to enter into another prolonged war in the Middle East.
Many chanted slogans and held aloft signs urging politicians to remember the difficult history of U.S. interventions in the Middle East, with many saying the current situation draws unwanted parallels to the disastrous U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
"The United States government is starting another war, just like they have done in the past in Iraq, in Syria, in Libya, in Lebanon and so on. And every area that they have started and they left, they left it in civil wars, and separating and literally doing nothing but making the people in different groups fight with one another. So wars never bring any peace. They don't bring justice. Justice is when you sit on a table as a mediator and you reach agreements," said Sam, a protester.
Meanwhile, protesters in Los Angeles raised banners and chanted slogans, calling on the U.S. government to cease military intervention in Iran's internal affairs.
They urged the U.S. government to focus more on the needs and demands of the American people instead of allocating funds to meaningless overseas wars. "I want the U.S. to stop bombing Iran. Hands off Iran. Stop interfering with the politics of Iran. Stop sanctioning the people of Iran. So much money on killing people abroad. We are seeing people suffering from ICE raids here in the United States, suffering from high rents, the lack of housing, lack of social services that are being cut. People need to be supported right here. The people of Iran are not America's enemy. What people need is their government and taxpayer dollars to be spent on services for themselves and not on more death and war," said another protester.
Demonstrations take place across US after US-Israeli strikes on Iran
