On February 13, ahead of the Chinese New Year, Premier Li Qiang of the State Council held a symposium at the Great Hall of the People with representatives of foreign experts working in China and recipients of the 2025 China Government Friendship Award. Ding Xuexiang, Vice Premier of the State Council, attended the event. Academician Fwa Tien Fang, Dean of the School of Future Transportation at Chang’an University and recipient of Shaanxi Province’s Sanqin Friendship Award, was invited to attend as a representative of foreign experts in China.
Li Qiang extended New Year greetings and sincere regards to the foreign experts, and thanked them for their long-term commitment and support for China’s modernization drive. He paid close attention to their views and suggestions on China’s development and government work.
Li Qiang stressed that openness and cooperation represent the common aspiration of humanity and the right path forward. China will unswervingly follow its fundamental state policy of opening up and continue to expand international cooperation in all fields. He expressed the hope that foreign experts will continue to act as bridges between China and the world, contributing more to enhancing mutual understanding and trust, strengthening exchanges and mutual learning, and achieving mutual benefit and win-win results. Foreign experts who have settled and achieved great things in China have produced strong spillover effects through their innovation and work, benefiting both China and the world. The Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee adopted the proposals for the 15th Five-Year Plan, mapping out a grand blueprint for China’s development in the next five years. We hope foreign experts will seize this opportunity, continue their dedicated efforts, and jointly build an even better future.
Academician Fwa Tien Fang is a full-time faculty member recruited by Chang'an university as an expert in highway and airport engineering. He currently serves as President of the Singapore Pavement Engineering Society (SPES), President of the Asian Pavement Engineering Society (APES), and a Council Member of the International Society for Maintenance and Rehabilitation of Transportation Infrastructure (iSMARTi). He also serves on the editorial boards of several international journals and has published more than 400 academic papers. In 2019, he was elected a Fellow of the Singapore Academy of Engineering. He has received many top international awards, including the Alfred Nobel Award, the Frank M. Masters Transportation Engineering Award, and the Arthur M. Wellington Award from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). He has also won the Singapore Minister for Transport Innovation Award multiple times, and was conferred the Sanqin Friendship Award by the People’s Government of Shaanxi Province in 2023. Since joining Chang’an University in 2018, Academician Fwa Tien Fang has made outstanding contributions to talent development, discipline construction, and the internationalization of transportation-related disciplines. His work has greatly enhanced the university’s global influence, reputation, and voice in international transportation technology and policy planning.
