BUENOS AIRES, May 25 (Xinhua) -- To better understand China and help promote closer cultural ties with the Asian giant, Argentine youth leader Pedro Robledo is about to embark on a year-long study program in Beijing.
The head of Argentina's National Youth Institute is one of a select group chosen by the Schwarzman Scholars program at the Tsinghua University to study a master's degree.
In a recent interview with Xinhua from the institute's offices in Buenos Aires, Robledo, a lawyer by training, said he foresees a promising future for China and Argentina, given their increasingly close cooperation in the areas of culture and education.
"Today, understanding China is an obligation because it is playing a key role in multilateral relations," said Robledo, who will get a master's in global affairs.
"China is a fundamental partner for our country, and it is essential for us to study it and build more bridges," he added.
Studying at a leading Chinese university represents an important step in building up the bilateral relationship, said the 27-year-old.
Despite a distance of nearly 20,000 kilometers that separates the two countries, China and Argentina have successfully strengthened ties in the past few years, he noted, adding "we see that today there are Argentine companies that are settling in China."
"It's good to understand that there is a huge world (within) China that we don't know, in terms of technological progress, blockchains ... and medical advances," said Robledo.
"We have to send people to study in China, to understand it, in order to have a better relationship status between the two countries," he said.
Following his master's degree, Robledo hopes to further social development projects, by serving in either the public or private sectors, to "help fight poverty," which he considers as one of "the worst ills in Latin America."
"The passion that drives me is to change what I call the 'birth lottery', which is the great evil in Latin America, where depending on what you were born into, your present and your future have been written," said Robledo.
"I have learned that social policies can help lower Argentina's 30-percent poverty rate, but so can investments, so there is a huge window of opportunity for our business owners and producers to explore," said Robledo.
To prepare for his trip, Robledo is taking Mandarin classes three times a week, and studying China's history and sociology.
"Preparation is important because a year goes by too quickly to understand the history of a people that is 5,000 years old," he said.
Robledo has a clear idea of how he wants to apply his newfound knowledge of China.
"During my time living in China, I want to concentrate on strengthening the cultural focus, get more Argentine and Latin American schools to teach Asian history, get them to begin teaching Chinese-Mandarin," he said.
"I think I'm going to fall in love with China, I'm going to fall in love with Beijing, and I think a year is going to be very little time," he said.
