U.S.-China Youth Flag Rugby Friendly Match Held at USST

From May 26 to 31, a delegation of the Lincoln High School girls' flag rugby team from Washington State enjoyed their trip to China, fulfilling a 10-year promise with General Secretary Xi Jinping, who visited Lincoln High School during his state visit to the U.S. in 2015 and interacted with the school's rugby team and extended an invitation to the students and faculty to visit China. The girls traveled from Beijing to Chengdu this time, with Shanghai being the last stop on the trip.

On the afternoon of May 30th, an exciting US-China Youth Flag Rugby Friendly Match was held on the sports field at the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology (USST). The Lincoln High School girls' flag rugby team and the USST's flag rugby team played together, using sports as a medium to build a bridge of friendship between China and the United States. Mr. Chen Jing, President of Shanghai Friendship Association with Foreign Countries (SFAC), Mr. Zhu Xinyuan, President of USST, Mr. Fu Jihong, Vice President of SFAC, Mr. Zhuang Hanjie, President of U.S.-China Youth and Student Exchange Association (USCYSA), Mr. Cai Yonglian, Vice President of USST, and representatives from the National Association of Friendship with Foreign Countries (NAFCOM), Major League Soccer China, and the City Rugby Football Association (CRFA) were present to witness this event, along with coaches and players from sports teams, clubs from Shanghai and neighboring areas, witnessed a wonderful moment for Chinese and American youths to meet friends and build friendship through rugby.

Before the match started, the players of both sides conducted a warm-up training for mixed teams. Through simple passing and receiving and tactical cooperation exercises, the players quickly drew closer to each other, and the atmosphere became relaxed and lively. In the opening ceremony of the match, Fu Jihong awarded the ball to the referee, and Cai Yonglian presided over the coin-flip side selection ceremony. With the referee's whistle, this friendly match across the Pacific Ocean officially began. Flag rugby is a sport with wisdom and vigor, to pull each other's flags instead of physical collision, safer and more fun. On the field, the Chinese and American players went all out, cooperated with each other well, and showed exquisite skills; off the field, the players of the two teams embraced each other, gave each other souvenirs, and warmly interacted with each other, which interpreted the sports spirit of “Friendship First, Competition Second”.

In the evening, the friendly match and 2025 Lincoln High School Friendship China Tour summary meeting was held at USST. Cai Yonglian addressed the summary speech, saying that USST is about to usher in its 120th anniversary of foundation. USST's univeristy lineage can be traced back to the founding of the University of Shanghai in 1906 and the German School of Medicine and Engineering in 1907, this university is full of internationalization genes, has always been committed to carry out educational and cultural exchanges with the rest of the world, and actively promote the interaction of the international students to visit the university, and constantly enhance the understanding and friendship between young people in China and abroad. She pointed out that the interaction between youth is an important part of international friendly exchanges and cooperation, and that the young people from China and the United States met at USST through sports competitions, which is not only a sports exchange, but also a cultural collision and integration. She encouraged the Chinese and American youths present to shoulder the mission of the messenger of Sino-American friendship, work together to carry forward the tradition of friendship, and inject youthful power into the international friendly exchanges and cooperation.

Since flag rugby has been officially included in the 2025 Chengdu World Games and 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games, this sport, which combines teamwork with intelligence and skill, has become an emerging sport that young people around the world are competing for, and it has also set up a brand-new bridge for the young generation of the U.S. and China to expand the field of exchanges and deepen their understanding of each other. USST has always adhered to the concept of openness, and actively promote international youth exchanges. This friendly match is a vivid practice of the university to promote youth exchanges between China and the United States, and also injected new vitality into the campus sports culture. In the future, the university will continue to build a diversified platform to help Chinese and American youth grow up in mutual learning and appreciation, and contribute more to the deepening of civil friendship.