On the morning of September 27th, Vice President Lin Yi met with Lord Bates, Deputy Speaker of the British House of Lords and Mrs Bates and exchanged broad views on facilitating people-to-people friendship between China and the UK.

Ms Lin Yi welcomed Lord Bates and Mrs Bates’ visit, briefly reviewed the history and main function of the CPAFFC, especially introduced the China-UK Local Leaders Summit in the frame of the China-UK High Level People-to-People Dialogue, cooperation with British political dignitaries and friendship organizations, as well as the China-UK Youth Exchange Program by the CPAFFC. She appreciated Lord Bates and Mrs Bates’ personally pacification and contribution to promoting world peace and friendship between China and the UK, and expressed the CPAFFC’s willingness to assistant Lord Bates and Mrs Bates’ efforts in promoting friendship between China and the UK.

Lord Bates appreciated Vice President Lin’s time and introduced his efforts to promote the idea of Olympic Truce through walk since the 2008 Beijing Olympics. So far, he has walked for more than 12,000 kilometers in 23 countries, raising charity fund for over 430,000 pounds. Last year, at the 70th Anniversary on the Victory of Anti-Fascist War, Lord Bates walked from Beijing to Hangzhou, covering over 1,700 kilometers and raised about 900,000 yuan for the disabled children in China. Besides, Lord Bates and Mrs Bates have launched the Walk for Peace Foundation, planning to promote sports exchanges with China in cooperation with the UN.

Deputy Director General Zhang Ruoning also attended the meeting.