President Li Xiaolin met with H.E. Mr. Pedro Pires, Former President of CaboVerde in the morning of July 4th in the CPAFFC. Vice President Lin Yi was present at the meeting. Mme. Li extended her welcome and thanked to Pires for leading a delegation to China on the 40th anniversary of China-CaboVerde diplomatic relations. She introduced the CPAFFC’s people-to-people exchanges with foreign countries, and hoped that Pires could continue to show concern and support for China-CaboVerde and China-Africa people-to-people exchanges and cooperation. Pires said that the CPAFFC plays an important role in safeguarding world peace and enhancing people’s friendship. He hoped that the two friendship associations of both countries could promote pragmatic cooperation by conducting exchanges in areas of trade, culture, youth and so on.  H.E. Mr. Pedro Pires paid a visit to China from July 1st to 6th at the invitation of the CPAFFC.

On June 15, President Li Xiaolin met with Ms. Helen Clark, former Prime Minister of New Zealand, Deputy Secretary General of United Nations. President Li Xiaolin meets with Ms. Helen Clark, former Prime Minister of New Zealand President Li welcomed Ms. Clark to visit CPAFFC again and expressed that China and New Zealand were enjoying a close relation at present and CPAFFC as a national people’s organization engaged in people-to-people diplomacy, had carried out rich activities with our partners in New Zealand. Significant results had been achieved in the area of promoting local government cooperation between our two countries. In November 2014, at the witness of President Xi Jinping and New Zeland Prime Minister John Key, CPAFFC and Local Government New Zealand launched the Exchange and Cooperation Mechanism of Mayors of New Zealand and China and successfully held the first China New Zealand Mayoral Forum in Xiamen in September 2015. President Li briefed that as a non-governmental organization in general consultative status with UN Economic and Social Council, CPAFFC enjoyed a good relationship of cooperation with UN. Last September, as its Chinese partner, we attended the “Every Woman Every Child” High-level Meeting in UN headquarter hosted by the UN Secretary General’s Office and discussed with attendees from all over the world on supporting and promoting the development of global women and children’s health.  Ms. Clark extended her appreciation for CPAFFC’s work in furthering friendly exchanges and cooperation in every aspect between China and New Zealand. She emphasized that China had played a remarkable role in the fields of implementing UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, supporting UN peace-keeping operations and women and children’s health as well as coping with global climate change. She expected China would join more UN programs on promoting sustainable development of mankind. New Zealand Ambassador to China H.E. John McKinnon attended the meeting.

President Li Xiaolin met with Mr. Jean Pierre Raffarin, former French Prime Minister, on May 27. President Li spoke highly of the outstanding contributions made by Mr. Jean Pierre Raffarin to promoting the two countries’ relations over years. She also emphasized that Chinese People viewed Mr. Jean Pierre Raffarin as a hero and true friend, since he visited China as French Prime Minister during the SARS period in 2003. President Li invited Mr. Jean Pierre Raffarin to attend the 5th Top Leaders Forum for Chinese and French Local Governments Cooperation which will be held in Chengdu, October. Mr. Jean Pierre Raffarin positively evaluated the efforts and achievements made by the CPAFFC and its President Li in enhancing the local governments cooperation between the two countries, and accepted the invitation. Vice President Song Jingwu attended the meeting.

President Li Xiaolin met with YOKOI YUTAKA, new Japanese Ambassador to China on May 25. Vice President Song Jingwu attended the meeting. President Li Xiaolin first extended her warm welcome to Ambassador YOKOI YUTAKA for his visit in the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC) as soon as he took his new post. President Li said that since the CPAFFC was founded in 1954, it had been working for developing the friendly exchanges and cooperation with the peoples all over the world and had established relationship of friendly cooperation with nearly 500 non-governmental organizations and institutions in 157 countries. President Li also said, the people-to-people friendly exchange with Japan is one of the important tasks of CPAFFC. Whether the bilateral ties develop stably or difficultly, the CPAFFC would insist on the people-to-people friendship of the two countries and actively make great contributions to enhancing the mutual understanding and friendship, and furthering the healthy and stable bilateral relations. President Li said, China and Japan are close neighbors with homologous culture, the two countries’ economy are complementary to each other. Since both of the countries are all of the important influence in the region and the world, the cooperation between China and Japan is the most conformed to the  basic interests of the two countries and their peoples. Although the bilateral ties are still difficult and fragile, they have chances to be improved. Next year marks the 45th anniversary of the normalization of Sino-Japanese diplomatic relations. She hoped that the both sides would take this as an opportunity to further develop the pragmatic exchanges in various fields and improve the bilateral relations. At last, President Li Xiaolin wished Ambassador YOKOI YUTAKA would have a good start for his work as Ambassador in China. Ambassador YOKOI YUTAKA thanked President Li Xiaolin for taking her time to meet him. He agreed with President Li’s opinion on the bilateral relations and the people-to-people exchanges between the two countries. He said, the two countries’ relations faced some difficulties in the past years, but the exchanges in the fields of humanity and personnel still keep forward, which the people-to-people exchanges played  an important role. In the long term, keeping the friendly relations between the two countries is the best and the only one choice. Ambassador YOKOI YUTAKA also said that he felt a great responsibility as the Japanese Ambassador and he would like to grasp the opportunity of the 45th anniversary of the normalization of Sino-Japanese diplomatic relations, work together with the CPAFFC and other relevant Chinese organizations to promote the exchanges and cooperation in different fields between the two countries, and to make efforts on realizing the friendship from generation to generation of the two countries. Cheng Haibo, Deputy Director General of the Department of Japanese Affairs, ISHIKAWA HIROSHI, Minister of the Embassy of Japan in China, YAMAMOTO YASUSHI, Minister  of the Embassy of Japan in China, attended the meeting.

President Li Xiaolin met with Simon Pang, president of U.S.-Sino Friendship Association (USFA)，on May 24. President Li spoke highly of the work of USFA in advancing local government exchanges and promoting sister city relations between China and United States. Simon Pang extended sincere thanks to the CPAFFC for its continuous support to the USFA, and briefed about the preparation work for the visit of this year’s US Western Region Mayors Delegation.

On May 14 to 18, CPAFFC President Li Xiaolin leading a delegation visited New Zealand for attending the Second Annual Summit of Tripartite Economic Alliance between Auckland, Guangzhou and Los Angeles. During the summit, President Li Xiaolin met with His Honorable Prime Minister John Key. President Li Xiaolin meeting with His Honorable Prime Minister John Key of New Zealand President Li briefed that at the witness of Chinese President Xi Jinping and New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, the Mechanism of New Zealand China Mayoral Forum was launched in November 2014. In 2015, CPAFFC successfully hosted the 1st New Zealand China Mayoral Forum in Xiamen and 25 mayors from both China and New Zealand were present at the Forum, which greatly strengthened cooperative relations of local governments of the two countries. The “Tripartite Economic Alliance” started a new model of practical cooperation between local govenments. Prime Minister John Key spoke highly of the achievement in the exchange and cooperation of local governments between the two sides. He expressed his appreciation for CPAFFC’s active promotion of the work of friendship cities and believed the “Tripartite Economic Alliance” would bring concrete benefits to the development of the three cities. President Li delivering her speech at the summit opening ceremony At the opening ceremony, President Li Xiaolin extended her warm congratulations to the convening of the summit. She pointed out the Chinese govenment encouraged to carry out regional cooperation between cities, both domestic and international. The “Tripartite Economic Alliance” was a very successful case in terms of friendship cities cooperation. President Li meeting with Mayor Brown of Auckland During the visit, President Li respectively met with Mayor Brown of Auckland, Mayor Garcetti of Los Angeles, Executive Director Draper of Asia New Zealand Foundation and Principal Policy Advisor Shackleton of Local Government New Zealand. President Li also attended the welcoming receptions hosted by Mayor Brown as well as Consul General Melanie Higgins of US to Auckland. President Li meeting with Mayor Garcetti of Los Angeles More than 700 people including H.E.Chinese ambassador Wang lutong to New Zealand, Chinese Consul General Xu Erwen to NZ, H.E.US ambassador Gilbert to NZ, NZ Consul General Rebecca Needham to Guangzhou, NZ Consul General Grice to LA and delegations from the three cities in areas of economy and trade, science and technology and media attended the summit.

On May 12, President Li Xiaolin met with the delegation headed by Mr. Yoo Jeong Bok, President of Governors Association of Korea (GAOK) and Mayor of Incheon Metropolitan City. Both sides had in-depth discussions on preparations for the first China-Korea Governors Conference to be held in Incheon from June 7 to 9. Mr. Yoo Jeong Bok expressed gratitude for President Li Xiaolin and CPAFFC’s great efforts in preparing the first China-Korea Governors Conference. Mr. Yoo said that the bilateral relations have entered a critical stage of development in which local governments are playing an important role. The Conference will give the two sides an opportunity to consolidate and develop friendly cooperation in various fields. President Li Xiaolin said that the China-ROK relations have achieved rapid development in recent years.  Chinese President Xi Jinping and ROK President Park Geun-Hye have met several times and established good personal friendship.  At present, Chinese and Korean local government have a lot to learn from each other. We are expecting the Conference to achieve positive results, which will promote the substantive exchange programs between the two sides. CPAFFC Vice President Lin Yi, Secretary General of GAOK Doh Youn Ho, were present at the meeting.

On May 10, President Li Xiaolin met with H.E. Mr. Dang Minh Khoi, Ambassador of Viet Nam to China in CPAFFC. President Li extended a warm welcome to Ambassador Dang. She reviewed the close cooperation between CPAFFC and Vietnamese counterparts in recent years, and pointed out that the bilateral relationship has been enhanced and leaders of the two countries attach great attention to the people-to-people friendship. We look forward to further cooperation with the Viet Nam union of Friendship Organizations and the Embassy of Viet Nam in China so as to make more efforts in developing the people-to-people friendship and mutual trust between two countries. Ambassador Dang said that both Viet Nam and China are socialist countries led by communist parties. The traditional friendship founded by leaders of the older generations is our common treasure. He spoke highly of the positive role that CPAFFC has played in promoting the people-to-people friendship and hope to work with CPAFFC to carry forward the friendship between Viet Nam and China from generation to generation. 

On May 4, H.E. Bounnhang VORACHITH, President of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP) and the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, met with Mme. Li Xiaolin, President of the CPAFFC, Mr. Wu Tao, President of China-Laos Friendship Association （CLFA）, and other representatives of Chinese friendly personages during his state visit to China. President Li Xiaolin firstly expressed congratulations to H.E. Bounnhang VORACHITH on his being elected as the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the  LPRP and the President of Lao People’s Democratic Republic and extended her gratitude to H.E. Bounnhang VORACHITH for meeting with Chinese friendly personages regardless of his tight schedule. She said that the friendship between China and Laos is quite precious, which largely depends on the hard work of generations. Chinese people will never forget the contribution of late Lao Foreign Minister Quinim Pholsena and other leaders of older generation to the China-Laos friendship. and the descendants of their families are always welcome to visit China.  H.E. Bounnhang VORACHITH thanked CPAFFC and CLFA for their long-term contribution to the development of bilateral relations. He said that all the Chinese friendly personages present here used to struggle on the front line of the Laos-China friendship with joint efforts and devote their life to it. The Laos now maintains social and political stability; enjoys steady economic growth and improved living standards. Thanks to China’s strong support and the joint efforts made by all Chinese guests present at the meeting, the cooperation between  Laos and China has been strengthened in all fields. The LPRP, the Lao government and people welcome all of you to pay a visit to the places you used to work in Laos at any time. Mme. Lin Yi, Vice President of the CPAFFC, Mr. Li Jun, Assistant Minister of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee, Mr. Liang Feng, former Chinese ambassador to Laos and Vice President of CLFA , Mr. Pan Guangxue, former Chinese ambassador to Laos, Mr. Zheng Guocai, former Director General of the International Department of the CPC, Mr. Liu Honglu, Director-General of the Research Center of Private Economy of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and son of the first President of CLFA Mr. Liu Chun, Mr. Zhang Liangmin,  professor on the Lao language of Beijing Foreign Studies University, as well as main delegates of the Laos delegation attended the meeting.

CPAFFC President Li Xiaolin met with Mr. Mohsin Darwish, Director of Oman-China Friendship Association and Oman famous entrepreneur on April 28. President Li Xiaolin extended her welcome to Director Mohsin Darwish’ visit to CPAFFC and congratulated him on being awarded for the outstanding contributions to China-Arab Friendship in January this year. She hoped that Director Mohsin Darwish would continue making contributions to the China-Oman friendly relations. Director Mohsin Darwish expressed that he would like to promote the exchanges, investment and cooperation in the fields of the economy and trade between the two countries, so as to continuously develop the friendly bilateral ties. CPAFFC Vice Presidnet Lin Yi and Oman Ambassador to China  Abdullah Al Saadi attended the meeting. During Chinese President Xin Jinping’ visit to Cairo on January 16 this year, CPAFFC held the award ceremony of China-Arab Friendship Outstanding Award. Director Mohsin Darwish is one of the ten winners.