Students from Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU) won the second place in the national finals of the China Universities Debating Championship (CUDC) 2021.

Hosted by the CATTI Management Center at China International Communications Group (CICG), the event was held online on March 25.

BFSU students win the second place in the national finals of the China Universities Debating Championship 2021. [Photo/bfsu.edu.cn]

With the debate topic “should the country use most of its sports investment in promoting public participation or in training medal winners in top events”, the debaters were given 15 minutes to prepare their arguments at the assigned positions.

With Lin Yan, a lecturer from BFSU’s School of English and International Studies (SEIS), as its tutor, as well as Yang Yiyun, an undergraduate from the 2018 class of the SEIS, and Xu Yuheng, an undergraduate from the 2020 class of Beiwai College, as its two star members, the BFSU team stood out for its critical thinking, rigorous logic and fluent expression, which demonstrated BFSUers’ excellence in logic and language skills.

CUDC attracted 112 teams who signed up for the competition. BFSU, Beihang University, Zhejiang International Studies University and Macau University of Science and Technology had passed the preliminary contests, regional trials and preliminary finals before advancing to the national finals.

Audience in the finals included representatives from more than 30 organizations such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, China Media Group, CICG, Xinhua News Agency, the Ministry of Water Resources, China National Committee for Translation and Interpreting Education and Huawei Technologies.

Prior to the finals, the BFSU debating team had won the second place in North China regional trials and ranked among the top 10 in the preliminary finals. Both Yang and Xu won the title of “national top 10 debaters”.