On October 5, 2010, a letter from Andreas Kiefer, Secre-tary General of the Congress of Lo-cal and Regional Authorities of theCouncil of Europe, informed CPAF-FC Vice President Li Xiaolin thatthe China International FriendshipCities Association (CIFCA) hadbeen granted observer status. Thedecision was taken at a meeting ofthe Bureau of the Congress onSeptember 17, 2010.