Nanchang-Houston: soaring with aviation

A Chinese mayor expressed the desire to deepen ties with American counterparts and enhance cooperation with the US on local and practical issues, before departing for Houston, Texas, to attend the US-China Mayors' Summit aimed at facilitating municipal-level cooperation between the two countries.

"We hope to take advantage of the summit, which is a wonderful communication platform, to advance and extend sister-city relations between Chinese and US cities," said Liu Jianyang, the mayor of Nanchang, in an interview with China Daily prior to attending the 4th US-China Sister Cities Mayors' Summit that starts on July 17.

Nanchang, the capital and largest city of Jiangxi province, hosted the last Mayors' Summit in 2016, which attracted over 300 attendees, from politicians to business representatives.

Recognizing how the summit strengthened cooperation between local governments from both sides, Liu said he was "delighted" to be invited to this year's summit, especially with this being the 40th anniversary of China-US diplomatic ties.

"We hope discussions between Chinese and US representatives on these topics will spark creativity and generate new ideas, which will lead to cooperation in respective areas," said Liu, adding that such cooperation would lay a solid foundation for good China-US relations in the future.

Liu specifically identified an industry that holds great potential for cooperation between Nanchang and Houston — while Houston has an advanced aviation industry, Nanchang serves as an important industrial base for China's aviation industry. Liu said he looks forward to engaging in exchanges and cooperation with Houston in aviation during his visit.

Besides Houston, Nanchang has been interacting and cooperating with other US cities, including Olympia, Washington, with which Nanchang has established a decade-long friendship, and Cupertino, California, whose then-mayor Barry Chang visited Nanchang in 2016 and signed a memorandum of understanding to facilitate bilateral exchange cooperation.

Nanchang's friendships with US cities are part of the broader-scale, robust local-level exchange between China and the US. According to the Chinese embassy in Washington DC, there are now 227 pairs of sister cities between the two countries, along with 50 pairs of sister states-provinces.

Such exchanges are robust, strong, and detailed people-to-people connection, said Tim Quigley, former chair of Sister Cities International, organizer of the Mayors' Summit, in a previous interview with China Daily.

Granted the International Sister City Exchange and Cooperation Award by the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries and the China International Friendship Cities Association in 2018, Nanchang is committed to opening up further and cooperating more with foreign cities in sectors like business and economics, technology, culture, education, sports and tourism, said Liu.

"Automobile and new-energy vehicles, electronic information, biomedicine, and aviation equipment are the four strategic emerging industries that we will focus on while developing sister-city relations in the future," said Liu, while naming the other four traditional industries that Nanchang had established advantages in, namely pollution-free food, new materials, modern textiles, and electrical and mechanical equipment, which are of equal importance.