Why Youth Exchanges Could Become the Strongest Bridge Between China and India

Across the world’s two most populous countries, young people are increasingly being seen not just as beneficiaries of development, but as its primary drivers. In both China and India, national leadership has placed the aspirations and energy of Gen Z and Gen Alpha at the centre of long-term planning. Beyond domestic priorities, there is also a growing recognition that youth-to-youth engagement can stabilise and humanise a relationship often strained by geopolitics.

Why youth matter to national visions in China and India

Both Xi Jinping and Narendra Modi have repeatedly underlined the role of youth in achieving their countries’ centenary goals. In China, young people are portrayed as inheritors of the national rejuvenation project, while in India, they are framed as the backbone of economic growth and global influence.

With China and India together accounting for the world’s largest youth populations, their policy choices regarding education, employment and international exposure will shape not only domestic futures, but also global economic and political trends.

China’s youth and the transformation of opportunity

Chinese youth have historically played a central role in moments of national change, and today they operate in an environment marked by expanded educational access and technological opportunity. By 2023, China’s nine-year compulsory education had reached a 95.7% consolidation rate. In 2024, university enrolment rose to 60.8%, with nearly 40% of students pursuing STEM disciplines.

During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, millions accessed online higher education, while over half of young workers received vocational training. International exposure has also expanded dramatically: between 1978 and 2024, around 7.43 million Chinese students studied abroad, with more than 6.44 million returning — reversing earlier fears of permanent brain drain.

From factory floors to digital platforms

Unlike the earlier binary of “farmer” and “worker”, Chinese youth today navigate a far more diversified labour market. The service sector now absorbs nearly half of total employment, while high-tech industries, non-public enterprises and new social organisations have emerged as major job creators.

Young people are increasingly active in the digital economy — as e-sports professionals, livestreamers, platform entrepreneurs and online writers. High-profile examples include Gen Z innovators leading ventures in finance and artificial intelligence, while China’s space station Tiangong is staffed by astronaut crews largely in their 30s and 40s.

In strategic national projects too — from west–east power transmission and south–north water diversion to deep-sea submersibles, quantum satellites and lunar and Mars probes — young scientists and engineers form the core workforce.

A global outlook shaped by confidence, not isolation

Chinese youth today tend to see the world through the lens of shared futures rather than zero-sum rivalry. As China’s opening-up deepens, young people are studying, working and travelling abroad with greater confidence and self-reliance, while also drawing selectively from other civilisations’ achievements.

This outward orientation has implications for bilateral ties, especially with countries like India that share similar demographic weight and developmental challenges.

Reviving China–India youth exchanges after disruption

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Chinese and Indian youth interacted regularly through educational, cultural, artistic, sporting and media exchanges. These channels are now gradually reopening. In November 2025, the Chinese Consulate General in Mumbai organised photo exhibitions on the Indian Youth Delegation’s 2024 visit to China at St. Xavier’s College and Somaiya Vidyavihar University, under the theme “Beyond borders, between hearts”.

The exhibitions, which documented everyday interactions between young Indians and their Chinese peers, attracted thousands of students and highlighted the appetite for renewed engagement.

Economic ties and people-to-people signals

Youth engagement is unfolding alongside a cautious improvement in bilateral relations. Following meetings between President Xi and Prime Minister Modi in Kazan and Tianjin in 2024 and 2025, ties have stabilised. In the first nine months of 2025, bilateral trade grew nearly 12% year-on-year to $104 billion. Indian exports to China surged, making China India’s third-largest export destination.

Symbolic steps have reinforced this thaw. China resumed pilgrimages to Mount Kailash and Lake Manasarovar, while India restarted tourist visas for Chinese citizens. Direct flights are being restored, with more routes expected in 2026. Cultural exchanges have followed, including performances by artists such as Lang Lang.

Why youth may outpace diplomacy

History offers a useful reminder. More than a century ago, Rabindranath Tagore urged parents not to confine children to the past, while Mao Zedong famously told young people that the future ultimately belonged to them.

Today, as China and India pursue their respective modernisation paths, youth exchanges may prove more resilient than formal diplomacy. They offer a way to rebuild trust incrementally, soften stereotypes, and create constituencies for cooperation even when political relations remain cautious.

In a relationship often defined by borders and disputes, the energy and curiosity of young people could yet become its most stable foundation.