On June 28, 2023, President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter to the "Bond with Kuliang: 2023 China-U.S. People-to-People Friendship Forum".

Xi Jinping pointed out that back in 1992, he invited Mrs. Elizabeth Gardner to Kuliang, helping her fulfill the wish of her late husband to return to his childhood home. In the following 30 years and more, members of the “Kuliang Friends” and people from all walks of life of both countries have delved deep into the history of Kuliang, actively promoted the Kuliang's culture, and worked tirelessly to deepen mutual understanding and friendly exchanges between the Chinese and American people.

Xi Jinping said that he was glad to hear from members of the Kuliang Friends, and to learn from their letter more touching stories about their connection with Kuliang. The 103-year-old Mr. Len Billing who recorded his time in Kuliang with many photos, Dr. Edward Lydston Bliss who wrote "I love the Chinese people" as his last words, and Mr. Donald Maclnnis who had some of his ashes scattered in the Minjiang River -- their stories have shown once again that the Chinese and American people can transcend differences in system, culture and language to forge profound friendship.

Xi Jinping stressed that amity between the people holds the key to sound relations between countries, and the people are the cornerstone of the growth of state-to-state relations. Xi Jinping expressed his hope that they will continue to write the Kuliang story and carry forward the friendly sentiment it embodies, so that the friendship between the two peoples will continue to grow and thrive like the millennia-old cedar trees in Kuliang.

The Kuliang story is a widely told story about Xi Jinping's personal efforts to promote friendly exchanges between Chinese and American people. In 1901, Milton Gardner, born in the United States, came to live in China's Fuzhou with his parents when he was still in his infancy, and his whole family moved back to the United States in 1911. Mr. Gardner had been longing for revisiting his childhood home in China, but had never been able to make his wish fulfilled. With assistance from Chinese students in the United States, Mrs. Elizabeth Gardner finally came to know that the place her husband had been dreaming of is Kuliang in Fuzhou. In 1992, Xi Jinping, who was then Secretary of the Fuzhou Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China, learned of the touching story related to Kuliang and invited Mrs. Elizabeth Gardner to visit China. In 2012,the then Vice President Xi Jinping visited the United States and shared the Kuliang story with the audience at a welcome luncheon hosted by friendly groups in the U.S., drawing warm responses from all sectors in both countries.

The "Bond with Kuliang: 2023 China-U.S. People-to-People Friendship Forum" with the theme of "Inherit the torch of friendship and create a better future together" was jointly hosted by the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries and the People's Government of Fujian Province in Fuzhou City, Fujian Province on June 28, and attended by people from various sectors in China and the United States including some members of the Kuliang Friends.