On October 19th 2019, the Third National United Nations Knowledge Competition for College Students was held at Beijing International Studies University (BISU). It was co-hosted by the United Nations Association of China (UNA-China) and BISU. After selection and training, the Department of Diplomacy and Foreign Affairs Management at China Foreign Affairs University (CFAU) sent two teams for this competition under the organization, training and leadership of Professor Niu Zhongjun and Yang Yang.
After the preliminary and final competition, second prize was won by the joint team of CFAU and BISU, which included Yuan Rui, Shi Wenbo and Liu Ruoqi from grade 2017. Third prize was won by the CFAU team, which included Jia Xuqi, Liu Meiyi and Liu Yiqi of grade 2017. Professor Niu Zhongjun and Yang Yang won the Best Instructor Award and CFAU won the Best Organization Award.
A total of 21 teams from 20 universities and colleges participated in the competition, including Zhejiang University, Beijing Foreign Studies University, Beijing Normal University and Central University of Finance and Economics. Ms. Zhang Dan, vice-president and director-general of UNA-China and Ms.Smriti Aryal, head of the Office for UN Women China, addressed the opening ceremony.
The two teams were drawn into the fifth competition subsite in the preliminary contest. In the session of required questions, both teams made excellent performances in the front rank. In the following session of quick response questions, the joint team of CFAU and BISU won first place in the subsite and fifth place in the whole competition with 250 points. They entered the final by adopting the conservative method of only answering the questions on which they felt assured. The CFAU team made a slight mistake in the second round and failed to reach the final with a total score of 220 points. During the preliminary competition, Professor Niu Zhongjun attended the National Universities’ Seminar on UN Teaching. Professor Niu gave a brief introduction about the current teaching features and future development of CFAU, and communicated with other professors with regard to UN Teaching.
Before the final, the players were busy getting ready for the game. Professor Niu Zhongjun and Yang Yang, together with Jia Xuqi, Liu Meiyi and Liu Yiqi, helped the three finalists to do pre-competition preparation.
A total of eight teams were shortlisted in the final competition, which included three sessions: multiple-choice questions, impromptu speech and scenario simulation. The multiple-choice questions session required each player to answer the question in turn. The impromptu speech session requested each team to send a player to make a 3-minute impromptu speech on the assigned topic. The simulation session required teams to draw lots to decide their own represented countries, and then simulate a discussion on the Iranian nuclear issue at the UN General Assembly. Contestants representing relevant member states needed to make statements for 5 minutes and conduct 40-minute free debates from the position of their representative country. The entire speeches had to be made in English. Yuan Rui, a member from the joint team of CFAU and BISU, participated in the impromptu speech session, and then the whole team made a statement and free debate with other teams on behalf of Germany.
In this competition, the two teams helped each other and performed excellently, which not only showed the characteristics of CFAU, but also fully reflected the students' professional qualities and positive spirit under the guidance of the 16-character school motto of “Unswerving Loyalty, Mastery of Policies, Professional Competency, and Observance of Discipline”.
