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A Chinese Goodwill Delegation led by Jing Dunquan, vice president of the CPAFFC visited Jordan and attended the International Conference of Sister Cities and Municipal Organizations in Israel from March 5 to 17 at the invitation of the Jordan-China Friendship Society (JCFS) and the Union of Local Authorities in Israel (ULAI). The 57-member delegation included representatives from 20 provin- ces, cities, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government.

In Jordan

The delegation met with Shihadeh Abu Hudeib, minister of municipal affairs, during its visit in Jordan. The two sides exchanged views on local government cooperation between China and Jordan. Minister Shihadeh Abu Hudeib said that exchanges between local governments of the two countries would help them to learn experience in development from each other and that by signing memorandum of understanding or through other forms, they could carry out cooperation in various fields such as exchanging visits between artists to enhance contact in the cultural field.

Chinese Ambassador to Jordan Gong Xiaosheng gave a reception welcoming the delegation, to which Minister Shihadeh Abu Hudeib, JCFS President Fayiz Soheimat as well as public figures in economic, business and judicial circles were invited.

In Jerash, Vice Mayor Ibrahim Khalil met with the delegation and hosted a banquet in its honour. The vice mayor thanked the Chinese Government for its support for the just cause of the Arab countries and hoped that after the visit the members of the delegation would bring back the friendship of the Jordanian people, become ambassadors of friendly exchange upon returning home and do more for the cause of Jordan-China friendship.

International Conference of Sister Cities and Municipal Organizations

This year sees the 60th anniversary of the State of Israel and the 70th anniversary of the ULAI. The ULAI, by holding this international conference, aimed to emphasize the role of cities and strengthen its cooperation with local governments and friendship organizations of various countries. 850 representatives from 45 countries attended the conference.

Present at the conference were Israeli Prime Minister Ehut Olmert, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Minister of Interior Meir Sheetrit. In his speech, Prime Minister Olmert said, he has served as mayor of Jerusalem for 10 years and knows deeply how important and hard the job is. Local governments are the basis of a country and reflect the desires of the people most directly. The exchanges among local governments of all countries would help promote mutual understanding and mixing of different cultures. He thanked the ULAI for providing a good opportunity for local government representatives from various countries to have exchanges.

Many of the speakers at the conference touched upon the question of carrying out exchange programmes among youth. Ms. Ruhama Avraham Balia, minister of liaison between the government and the Knesset at the Prime Ministers Office, pointed out, youth are the future decision makers. We should educate them and instill in them greater sense of responsibility for society. Many participants talked about their own cities experience in carrying out youth exchanges. All spoke highly of “home stay” in such exchange. A local student representative and a foreign student representative from the Hebrew University of Israel were specially invited to speak at the closing ceremony of the conference. The students placed great hope on the mayors and believed that mayors of all countries would provide better conditions for youth exchanges.

Chinese representatives made four keynote speeches at the different workshops. CPAFFC Vice President Jing Dunquan made a comprehensive briefing on CPAFFCs work of establishing friendship-city relations with foreign countries and expressed welcome to participants from all countries to come to Beijing to attend the First Conference of International Friendship Cities in China which would be held this year. Yiyang City in Hunan Province is the hometown of Mr. He Fengshan (Feng Shan Ho). In 2001, the Government of Israel conferred posthumously the title of Righteous Among the Nations on He Fengshan in recognition of his outstanding contributions to protecting the Jews. Wu Xiaoqin, vice mayor of Yiyang, delivered a speech entitled “City Diplomacy—Vanguard of Peace”, using the story of He Fengshan as an example. Han Bin, director of the Foreign Affairs Office of Haikou Municipal Government, briefed the participants on the achievements of the citys economic development and expressed his city willingness to carry out friendly exchanges with cities of other countries. Jimingnanjia, vice mayor of Lhasa, gave a brief account of Lhasa to help the participants better understand the development in Chinas Tibet region.

The extensive contact Chinese participants had with the Israeli side during the conference achieved good results. Representatives from Yangzhou held talks with the Centre for International Cooperation under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Mayor Yael German of Herzliya and reached consensus on Yangzhou sending people to Israel to attend training course and a visit to China by a Herzliya delegation of scientists, technicians and business people headed by the mayor. The two cities also decided to sign an agreement on the establishment of friendship-city relations this year. Representatives from Xiamen and the director of the Foreign Affairs Office of Netanya agreed to sign a letter of intent on the twinning of friendship ties between the two cities within the year. Representatives from Yiyang met with the head of the archive department of Yad Vashem (the New Memorial Holocaust Museum). The two sides agreed to share documents and material about Mr. He Fengshan to enrich the exhibits of their respective museums. Representatives from Tibet Autonomous Region exchanged opinions with officials of Beit Shemesh City on its mayors visit to China this year and the signing of the agreement on the twinning of friendship cities. Representatives from Heilongjiang Province gave a presentation on the close relations between Harbin and Israel to the Israeli media.

At the grand dinner party given by the conference, the ULAI presented the Award for Outstanding Achievements in Developing International Relations with Local Authorities in Israel to five people, two of whom were from the CPAFFC. In his speech on the occasion, Avi Rabinovitch, deputy director general of the ULAI, said, the ULAI had wanted to establish links with China before Israel and China had diplomatic relations. It came into contact with the CPAFFC by chance. At the invitation of the CPAFFC, it sent a ULAI delegation to visit China, which started the sweet “l(fā)ove story” between the two organizations. The Israeli side is very grateful to the Chinese side for sending a big delegation to the conference.

At the closing ceremony, a declaration was adopted. It states that in society today, local government is one of the most basic tenets of democracy and platform for the future national leaders and that all municipalities and regions should set up quality measures for attractive and successful city, build a network of cooperation for dialogue, understanding and trust through city diplomacy and peace initiatives and settle disputes by peaceful means. The declaration also calls for cooperation in youth exchange and support for the reconciliation between Israel and Palestine. The declaration is a concentrated manifestation of the main themes of the conference, which are “cities, youth and Israel-Palestine relations”.