On April 23, CPAFFC President Li Xiaolin met with Stephen Lakis, president of US State Legislative Leaders Foundation and his delegation, which includes senate presidents, house speakers pro tempore or house majority leaders from Idaho, Delaware, Georgia and Arkansas state.

Madam Li said that entrusted by the Chinese government, CPAFFC is responsible to coordinate and oversee the work of establishing and developing sister city relations between China and other countries. Up till now, China has established 2171 pairs of sister city (province/state) relationship with 133 countries in the world. In recent years, CPAFFC is engaged in promoting sub-national exchanges between China and the U.S., and established cooperation mechanisms such as China-US Governors Forum, with U.S. National Governors Association. CPAFFC is willing to strengthen contacts with the U.S. State Legislative Leaders Foundation, and promote China-US sub-national exchanges, especially between state legislature and provincial congresses. 

Stephen Lakis thanked President Li Xiaolin for her kind invitation, and said that the Chinese Dream and the American Dream are very similar. So are the problems and challenges faced by local leaders of the two countries. The Foundation is actively facilitating the U.S. state legislative leaders to reach out to the other countries, and hopes to work with the CPAFFC to carry out exchange visits or forums, and establish a platform for dialogue and exchange between the U.S. state legislative leaders and Chinese provincial congressional leaders, so as to strengthen local governance and development in both countries.