On invitation of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Ireland and Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding (SACU) in UK, CPAFFC delegation visited Ireland and UK from May 27 to June 2. During the stay in UK, Vice President Song Jingwu delivered a speech in the celebration conference marking the 50th anniversary of SACU, and presented a commemorative plate on behalf of CPAFFC to SACU. The delegation met with Mr. Stephen Perry, Chairman of the 48 Group Club, and Lord Michael Dobbs, Member of the House of Lords and author of House of Cards. While visiting Ireland, the delegation met with Ms. Ann Phelan, Minister of State at Department of Environment, Community and Local Government, Mr. Chrity Burke, Lord Mayor of Dublin, and officials of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The two sides have exchanged views on carrying out cooperation in the framework of MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING ON A FRAMEWORK FOR JOINTLY ENHANCING PEOPLE-TO-PEOPLE EXCHANGE AND COOPERATION BETWEEN THE CHINESE PEOPLE’S ASSOCIATION FOR FRIENDSHIP WITH FOREIGN COUNTRIES AND THE DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND TRADE OF IRELAND. Vice President Song Jingwu delivering a speech at the Conference Marking the 50th Anniversary of SACU Presenting a Gift to Chairwoman of SACU Ambassador Liu Xiaoming and Vice President Song Jingwu at the Conference Marking the 50th Anniversary of SACU CPAFFC Delegation meeting with officials of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Meeting with Lord Michael Dobbs, Member of the House of Lords and author of House of Cards Meeting with Mr. Stephen Perry, Chairman of the 48 Group Club

On June 2nd, Vice President Song Jingwu met with Mr. Samir Hadzic, Chairman of Montenegro-China Friendship Association (MCFA), and Ms. Dijiana Dukaj, Vice Chairwoman of MCFA at Friendship Pavilion in the CPAFFC. The both sides signed Agreement of Cooperation between CPAFFC and MCFA. At the banquet, Friendship Art Exchange Association of the CPAFFC presented art works to the MCFA. The both sides expressed wishes of strengthening friendly contact between the artists of the two countries. The delegation of MCFA will visit Beijing and Shanghai, then attend the China-CEEC Investment and Trade Expo at Ningbo at the invitation of The People’s Government of Ningbo City.

On June 1st, Vice President Hu Sishe met with the 8 presidents and senior executives of the U.S. Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) Delegation. Vice President Hu Sishe said that since the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the United States, the official educational exchanges and cooperation between the two countries have been developing steadily with the joint efforts of both sides. Up to now, the number of Chinese students studying in the U.S. has reached to 490,000, making China the largest source of international students in America. The number of American students studying in China is about 24,000, and China is also American students’ most favored destination to study abroad in Asia. Hu also said that the educational exchanges and cooperation between the two countries are helpful to advance economic, scientific and technological development, to enhance understanding and friendship between their people, and to develop bilateral relations between China and the U.S. CPAFFC will continue to contribute to the development of the educational exchanges and cooperation between the two sides. David Wilson, the president of Morgan State University in Maryland, also the head of the delegation, introduced the development of the HBCUs, current situation of the development of Morgan State University and its advanced subjects. He pointed out that the HBCUs have made great efforts to provide more education opportunities to African students, with an emphasis on cultural differences and the degree of internationalization, etc. In addition, other members of the delegation introduced their schools respectively, including school size, research progress, education ideas, etc,. They said that the exchanges between HBCUs and Chinese colleges and universities have become more and more frequent in recent years, and that cooperation projects also gradually increased. They hope to further enhance mutual exchanges and cooperations with their Chinese counterparts through this visit.

 On May 29, Ms. Hu Chunmei, Deputy Director General Level Counsel of Department of European and Asian Affairs of the CPAFFC met with the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Manassarian.  The two sides had in-depth exchange of views on promoting people-to-people friendship relations, and cooperation of local governments.  Ms. Tian Erlong,Chinese Ambassador to Armenia attended the meeting.

On May 29, 2015, Vice Premier Liu Yandong of the State Council of China, who was paying a visit to Indonesia, visited the site of the Bandung Conference in 1955 and the photo exhibition --Zhou Enlai and the Bandung Conference, accompanied by Chinese Ambassador to Indonesia Xie Feng and main leaders of Indonesia-China Economic, Social and Cultural Cooperation (AICESCC). Vice Premier Liu said that the Bandung Conference convened 60 years ago played an important role in establishing the new order of international relations, and the close cooperation between Chinese and Indonesian leaders at the Conference also became a much told tale in the history of China-Indonesia friendship. The Bandung spirit centered on seeking peaceful co-existence as well as common ground while shelving differences still exhibits strong vitality. The Chinese side is willing to work with Indonesia to continuously intensify unity and cooperation among vast developing countries, make greater contribution to the noble cause of world peace, development and prosperity, and inherit and carry forward the Bandung spirit with practical actions. Sponsored by CPAFFC and AICESCC, this itinerant exhibition was inaugurated in Jakarta on April 23, 2015.

The Japanese Delegation of Soka Gakkai led by Vice President Ikeda Hiromasa came to visit China from May 25th to 28th at the CPAFFC’s invitation. On May 27th, State Councilor Yang Jiechi met with the delegation at Chengwudian of Zhongnanhai. Yang Jiehchi said, both China and Japan are major countries in Asia and the Asia-Pacific region. China attaches great importance to people-to-people exchanges and cooperations between the two countries. Recently, President Xi Jinping made the remarks during a gathering with over 3000 Japanese visitors in Beijing to support China-Japan exchanges at the Great Hall of the People, in which he pointed out that the China-Japan friendship is rooted in the peoples, and the future of the bilateral relationship is in the hand of the peoples. China would like to take history as a mirror and look forward into the future, and work with the Japanese side to boost biliteral ties based on the four political documents between the two countries. China-Japan relationship is now improving step by step. We hope that the two peoples especially the youths will further advance their exchanges. Yang Jiechi positively evaluated the efforts Soka Gakkai has made to promote friendly relations between two sides and encouraged them to continue to play the advantages as a traditional friendly organization toward China as to make more contributions to China-Japan friendship from generation to generation. Ikeda Hiromasa thanked Mr. Yang for meeting the delegation. He said, all circles of Japanese society responded positively to the remarks made by President Xi, which inspired many of the Japanese friendly organizations. Japan and China are neighboring countries of mutual importance and thus Soka Gakkai will follow the tradition and continuously devote for the improvement and development of people-to-people exchanges and biliteral relations. President Li Xiaolin and Vice President Hu Sishe of the CPAFFC were present at the meeting.

Invited by Dr. Mohammed Khalil, President of the Morocco China Friendship and Exchanges Association, Mr. Hu Jianhuai, Inspector of  Department of Asian & African Affairs of the CPAFFC led a 2-member working group to visit Morocco from May 24th to 28th ,2015. The group  attended the economic and trade seminar with the theme of “Promoting Chinese Investment in Morocco” which was organized by the Morocco China Friendship and Exchanges Association, the Moroccan Ministry of Industry and the Morocco Investment Development Agency. A 10-member delegation led by Mr. Tan Zhigui, Director General of Shaoxing Municipal People''s Congress and President of Shaoxing Municipal People''s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries  and more than 10 entrepreneurs from Shanghai, Shandong and Hunan Province were also present at the seminar. Mr. Hamid Ben Elafdil, CEO of Moroccan Investment Development Agency pointed out at the seminar that Morocco''s unique geographical location and a number of free trade agreements signed with the United States and Europe have made Morocco a country of strong investment potential. He welcomed Chinese enterprises to invest in Morocco. In his speech, Mr. Sun Shuzhong, the Chinese Ambassador to Morocco introduced about the situation and the investment environment in Morocco, ways to avoid investment risks for the Chinese companies and the relationship between China and Morocco. Mr. Hu Jianhuai thanked Moroccan side for holding the seminar on behalf of the CPAFFC and the China Arab friendship Association and welcomed Morocco to participate in the strategic concept construction of "the Road and Belt Initiatives ". Dr. Mohammed Khalil welcomed the Chinese delegation to attend the meeting. He said that the association will continue to promote bilateral economic and trade, culture, tourism, arts, sports and other areas of friendly exchanges, hoping to achieve win-win progress through bilateral exchanges. After the seminar, the Moroccan side made arrangements for the participants to visit technology cities, the FTA and other facilities in Rabat, Tangier and Casablanca. The Chinese and Moroccan entrepreneurs and leaders from relevant institutions discussed about cooperation in bilateral trade and investment. The delegation from Shaoxing City expressed the willingness in searching for a friendship city in Morocco.

At the invitation of the Spanish Council of Spain-China Forum, the Spain -China Friendship Association and the Portugal National City Association, Vice President Song Jingwu led the delegation of CPAFFC to visit Spain and Portugal from April 19th to 26th. The delegation attended the VIII Spain-China Forum and was received by the King of Spain Felipe VI. During his visit to Spain, the CPAFFC delegation met with the Vice President of Rielo Foundation of Spain, Mr.Luis, and discussed on relevant issues about the 4th World Youth Parliament which will be held in Beijing in 2016. The delegation also met with the President of Spain and China Friendship Association Mr. Osuna and representatives of Small and Medium Enterprises. The two sides reached a consensus on promoting the enterprise cooperation of both countries. In Portugal, the delegation had a working meeting with the Secretary-General of the Portugal National City Association.

On May 26th, Vice President Lin Yi met with the National Management College (NMC) delegation from Pakistan. This is the 39th NMC delegation received by the CPAFFC since 1974. The  delegation consists of senior civil servants from both central and local governments of Pakistan. Vice President Lin congratulated the NMC on winning the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence Friendship Award conferred by President Xi Jinping this April.She briefed the delegation about China Pakistan people-to-people diplomatic work conducted by the CPAFFC, with a special focus on the importance of exchanges at the local government level. She said, since the work of local governments are directly related to the common people, promotion of exchanges between the localities along the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) will bring strong impetus to the development of CPEC. Up to now, there are 13 pairs of friendship cities or provinces between China and Pakistan, and we wish more friendship-city/province relations to be established with our joint efforts. Zia ur Rehman, head of the delegation, gave an introduction of the NMC and the delegation. He thanked the CPAFFC for its support and cooperation with the NMC over the past years. He said, opinions at grassroots level are very important in the policy formation of a country, thus people-to-people exchanges are vital to bilateral relations. The NMC would like to have further cooperation with the CPAFFC to deepen people-to-people exchanges between China and Pakistan. During the visit in Beijing, the delegation had panel discussions on the “Belt and Road” Initiates with Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National Academy of Governance, and the China Institute of International Studies, etc. 

On May 25th,2015, with the witness of the Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and the Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, Xie Yuan, Vice President of the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC) and Fernando Matta,  Chairman of Chile-China Culture Institution (CCCI) signed the Memorandum of Cooperation in Santiago, the capital of Chile. According to the memo, the both sides will enhance the two peoples’ understanding and friendship by developing the exchanges in culture. The both sides will promote the exchange and visits of artists, cultural organizations, and well-known personages based on equality and mutual benefit; establish modern dialogue mode against the background of daily deepening relationship of the two countries, so as to overcome the distance and strengthen the relations of the two countries. CCCI was established in October, 1952. It is the earliest friendly-to-China organization in South America. Under the leadership of the founders such as the former Chilean President Salvador Allende, well-known poet and the winner of Nobel Prize for literature Pablo Neruda, the famous painter José Venturelli, it has long made important contribution to Chile-China friendship and culture exchange in the way of promoting official diplomacy by non-official diplomacy.