The School of Public Administration at Jilin University and the School of Politics and International Relations of Lanzhou University both have academic traditions of studying China's frontier issues. In order to strengthen the academic cooperation between the two schools and build an academic platform for the exchange of knowledge and views, the two schools decided to jointly hold the "Northwest-Northeast Forum" in turn once a year. The first “Northwest-Northeast Forum” in 2020 was held online.

The first "Northwest-Northeast Forum" was convened on the morning of May 23^rd, 2020. This forum was hosted by the School of Public Administration at Jilin University. More than 130 teachers and students from Jilin University, Lanzhou University, Yanbian University, Yunnan University, Party School of Xinjiang Autonomous Region Party Committee and Chinese Academy of Social Sciences attended the forum with the theme of "China's Border Security: Theoretical Boundaries and Practical Paths".

This forum has two sub-topics, namely "Theoretical Discussion on Border Security" and "Practical Issues on Border Security". Professor Zeng Xianghong, Deputy Dean of our school, and professor Yu Haiyang, Deputy Dean of the School of Public Administration at Jilin University, moderated the discussions on the two sub-topics respectively.