Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries

From July 15 to 16, 2016, CPAFFC Vice President Xie Yuan led a delegation to attend the 60th Annual Conference of Sister Cities International(SCI), and the commemorative activities. Totally 400 people from the U.S. and over 10 countries participated in the conference. The attendees had in-depth discussions on topics such as smart cities and international cooperation, sister cities and global security, economic benefits of sister city relationship, etc. The Chinese Embassy in the U.S. and the government of Washington D.C. co-hosted a reception marking the 60th anniversary of SCI during the conference. Vice President Xie Yuan, Minister Li Kexin of the Chinese Embassy, Assistant Secretary of State Evan Ryan, President Mary Kane of SCI, Mayor Muriel Bowser of Washington D.C. gave remarks at the opening ceremony or reception. Zhang Heqiang, director general of the Department of American & Oceanian Affairs, CPAFFC spoke at the concurrent session “The Etiquette of Diplomacy: A Discussion on International Protocol” as a panelist.

In his remarks, Xie Yuan thanked the U.S. State Department and SCI for their efforts in promoting China-US sub-national and sister city cooperation. He said that, as an important entity of global cooperation, city successfully linked the relations between nations and peoples after the World War II. Sister city movement has won great support from the Chinese national government. China-U.S. sub-national cooperation has been very active during recent years, with many sister cities carrying out productive cooperation in broad areas. The CPAFFC has worked with American organizations like SCI to implement several China-U.S. sub-national exchange mechanisms, among which the Third China-U.S. Sister Cities Conference is going to be held in Nanchang, Jiangxi this November, with the theme of healthy cities. All sectors from the two countries are welcome to join this conference.

Mary Kane said that as an oldest organization in the U.S. engaged in people-to-people exchanges, SCI has been dedicated to the exchange and cooperation between the U.S. and other countries in such areas as economy and trade, education, culture, environment, youth, as well as promoting understanding and peace through people-to-people activities. She announced that July 15 is “The day of SCI” across the U.S, and hoped conference attendees to deepen sister city exchanges in their respective countries and regions, with the U.S.

The U.S. Department of State, SCI and Washington D.C. government highly appraised the CPAFFC on its indispensable role in promoting U.S.-China sub-national and sister city exchanges. They hoped the two sides continue their efforts to make more achievements in this area, to benefit two peoples. CPAFFC group also held meeting with leadership of SCI and reached consensus on working together to make the Third China-U.S. Sister Cities Conference a great success.

SCI was founded in 1956, on the initiative of then U.S. President Eisenhower, and is an important partner of CPAFFC in conducting China-U.S. sub-national cooperation.