Amid the serene atmosphere of the historic Zhijiang campus, a California lawmaker discovered unexpected academic kinship. "This reminds me exactly of the Ivy League," observed Rich Desmond, a Sacramento county Sacramento County supervisor, while strolling through Zhejiang University's picturesque grounds with reporter Liu Mohan. Attending the U.S.-China Sino-American Sister Cities Conference, the American official found the human connections that transcended political divisions particularly meaningful. He reflected on his sister-city experience in Jinan and the extraordinary hospitality and genuine warmth with which the Chinese people that greeted him.

Looking ahead, Desmond expressed his firm belief in the power of direct dialogue between leaders. With measured optimism, he shared his hope that the presidents of both nations would seize the opportunity at the upcoming APEC meetings to sit down together and work through their differences, confident in the knowledge that the world's two most powerful leaders could find constructive common ground through face-to-face diplomacy.