FACE TO FACE: U.S. President Barack Obama takes a question during a town hall meeting with Chinese college students at the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum on November 16 (PEI XIN)

Visiting U.S. President Barack Obama has vowed to expand the number of the United States' students in China to 100,000, in a bid to boost exchanges between the two countries' young people.

"I am absolutely confident that America has no better ambassadors to offer than our young people," he told an audience of more than 500 Chinese college students at the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum on November 16.

He said young people could help build bridges in U.S.-China cooperation, a process which he said he believes must grow beyond the two countries' governments to take root in the people.

China is currently the fifth most popular destination for U.S. students studying abroad, says a recently released annual report of the U.S. Institute on International Education. In the 2007-2008 academic year, the latest for which figures are available, 13,165 Americans studied in China, a dramatic rise from 1995-1996, when there were only 1,396.

Conversely, the number of Chinese students in the United States reached 98,510 in the 2008-2009 academic year, making China the second largest provider of foreign students to the United States, second only to India.

During a one-hour discussion with Chinese students, which was broadcast live on the Websites of both China's Xinhua News Agency and the White House, Obama also said he welcomed China as a "strong, prosperous and successful member of the community of nations."

The U.S.-China relationship has opened the door to partnerships on major global issues including economic recovery, clean energy, nuclear nonproliferation, climate change, and the promotion of peace and security in Asia and beyond, he said.

Obama kicked off his first state visit to China in the country's financial and economic hub Shanghai on November 15. He is the first U.S. president to visit China inside his first year in office.