At the invitation of the CPAFFC, Robert McDonnell, Governor of Virginia visited Beijing, Liaoning, Zhejiang and Shanghai from April 13 to 23, 2013. Governer McDonnell attended the Second China-U.S. Governors Forum in Beijing and Tianjin. Mme.Li Xiaolin, President of CPAFFC and Mr.Su Shulin,Governor of Fujian Province had individual meetings with him during the forum. Governer McDonnell also made official visits to Mr. Li Qiang, Governor of Zhejiang Province, Mr.Yang Xiong, Mayor of Shanghai , Mr. He Dongfeng, President of the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, Ltd., and Mr. Liu Qi, Mayor of Ningbo. The Virginia delegation attended Zhejiang-Virginia Economy and Trade Cooperation Seminar in Hangzhou.

At the invitation of CPAFFC, the California state government and business delegation headed by Governor Jerry Brown visited Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu and Guangdong from April 9 to 16, 2013. This was Governor Brown''s first visit to China as the Governor of California. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang met with Governor Brown in Beijing. Mr. Gao Hucheng, Minister of Commerce, Mr. Xu Shaoshi, Chairman of NDRC, Mr. Zhou Shengxian, Minister of Environmental Protection, Mme.Li Xiaolin, President of CPAFFC, Mr. Wang Chao, Vice Minister of Commerce, Mr. Chen Jining, President of Tsinghua University also met the Governor in Beijing. While in Shanghai, Jiangsu and Guangdong, Mr. Han Zheng, Party Secratary of Shanghai , Mr. Luo Zhijun, Party Secratary of Jiangsu Province, Mr. Hu Chunhua, Party Secratary of Guangdong Province and Mr. Zhu Xiaodan, Governor of Guangdong Province met with Governor Brown respectively. During the visit, Governor Brown signed the Memorandum of Understanding together with six Chinese provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities including Jiangsu, Inner Mongolia, Shanghai, Shandong, Guangdong and Chongqing to establish the Joint Working Group on trade and investment cooperation, and he also signed Memorandum of Understanding On Friendly Cooperation with Jiangsu Province and Guangdong Province respectively.

The Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries and U.S.National Governor’s Association co-hosted the second China-US Governors Forum in Beijing and Tianjin on April 15th and 16th. Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Chinese and U.S. Governors attending this forum on April 15th. The China-U.S. Governors Forum was launched according to the consensus reached between China and U.S. Leaders in 2011,serving as a creative step to offer a high-level and regular platform for subnational exchanges and cooperation. The attendees of this forum included Tianjin Mayor Huang Xingguo, Hebei Governor Zhang Qingwei, Hei Longjiang Acting Governor Lu Hao, Fujian Governor Su Shulin, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Acting Governor Chen Wu and Iowa Governor Terry Branstad, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell. Representatives of China and U.S.discussed two major topics: "China-U.S. Local Government Economic and Trade Cooperation" and "Sharing Experience in Environmental Management". Both two sides agreed that China and U.S. shared same or similar opportunities and challenges in related areas and had enormous potential for cooperation. China and the U.S. should grasp opportunities and facilitate cooperation, so as to further foster bilateral sub-national exchanges and contribute to building Sino-U.S. cooperative partnership. President Li Xiaolin and Tianjin Mayor Huang Xingguo respectively hosted welcome receptions in Beijing and Tianjin. Sun Chunlan, Party Secretary of Tianjin met with attendees of the forum. The U.S.entrepreneurs who accompanied Governor’s visit to China attended China-US Sub-National Trade Cooperation Seminar and had face-to-face exchanges with their Chinese counterparts in fields of trade, energy, enviromental protection, technology, medicine and so on. The Forum achieved a complete success.  

At the invitation of the CPAFFC, a delegation of the friendly personages from Iquique, Chile led by Nestor Jofre, the Regional Secretary of Ministry of Economy, Development and Tourism, Republic of Chile visited Beijing, Nanning and Shanghai from March 22 to April 2, 2013. Xie Yuan, the vice president of the CPAFFC, Wang Xu, the deputy director-general of Investment Promotion Agency of Ministry of Commerce of the People''''s Republic of China, Zhang Niansheng, the deputy director of Overseas Department of People’s Daily, Li Jianhua, the deputy secretary-general of Nanning Municipal Government, Zhou Yajun, the vice president of Shanghai People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries met with the delegation respectively. The delegation also had working conferences and in-depth discussions with Shanghai Federation of Industry and Commerce, the enterprises in Beijing and Nanning, in fields of agriculture, tourism and investment.

    Rainbow Bridge Project was initiated by the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC). It was aiming for mainly imparting knowledge and skills between the Chinese old revolutionary poverty bases and multinational corporations through this bridge. After starting on October 18, 2012, the opening ceremony of Rainbow Bridge Project--Christmas Trip to Hongan by Volunteers of Multinational Corporations was held in the Memorial Garden of Former Residence of Li Xiannian (the former President of People’s Republic of China), in Hubei Province. Madam Lin Jiamei, the wife of former President Li Xiannian, communicated friendly and had pictures taken with representatives of each company during the activity. Hongan County, Hubei Province attended the launching ceremony and delivered speeches. Senior managers from ten multinational corporations and over 150 staff joined the activity as volunteers.     Li Xiaolin, President of CPAFFC, expressed at the Starting Ceremony that Hongan County as an old revolutionary base with traditional spirit of hard working, although it was one of the poverty bases in our country with weak economic foundation, it had huge economic development potential during the new era. CPAFFC built the bridge for multinational corporations to make use of knowledge, experiences, resources and funds to drive the old revolutionary bases to become rich and realize mutual benefit. President Li Xiaolin spoke highly of the volunteers who tried to overcome tough conditions to sent warmth and friendship to the people of the old bases and hoped the volunteers pay more attention to the old revolutionary base and support economy and society development.     Over 150 young volunteers who were the generation after 80s and 90s came from ten multinational corporations, Disney, CocaCola, Starbucks, Seagate, Standard Chartered, IBM, Cummins, Dell, 3M, Estee Lauder and others. After visiting the memorial garden of former residence of Li Xiannian, they were all inspired and influenced by the idealism, patriotism, heroism and highly spirits of these revolutionary predecessors. Rainbow Bridge Project is aiming for advancing economic and social development of old poverty bases with people-to-people diplomatic work as the core, with public projects of poverty and revolutionary bases as breakthrough point, with integration the relatively scatter funds of social responsibilities of enterprises as resources channel. This project is planned to be held in the old poverty bases near Yanan in 2013.     Reports： http://www.cnsphoto.com/NewsPhoto/ShowNewsDetail.asp?ID=873992 http://www.redhongan.com/2012/1218/127494.shtml http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/hqgj/jryw/2012-12-17/content_7793215.html http://www.nd.chinanews.com/Pictures/tpxw/20121218/789697.html http://www.ha.e21.cn/Article/ShowArticle.asp?ArticleID=16401 http://news.cnhubei.com/ctdsb/ctdsbsgk/ctdsb26/201212/t2375977.shtml http://www.hgmz.gov.cn/item_zwgk/xsfc/2012-12-20/4064.html http://www.ha.e21.cn/Article/ShowArticle.asp?ArticleID=16406

At the invitation of the Association of local Authorities in Lithuania  (AEC) and the Association of Estonian Cities  (ALAL), a CPAFFC delegation headed by vice president Li Jianping visited Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia. The delegates also include the officials of  Taiyuan Municipal Government of Shanxi and representatives from circles of education and enterprises. Liu Zengwen, the Chinese Ambassador to Lithuania and Qu Zhe, the Chinese Ambassador to Estonia met with and held banquet for the delegation respectively. During the visit, vice president Li Jianping signed the agreement respectively with Riardas Malinauskas, the president of the Association of local Authorities in Lithuania (AEC) and the mayor of Druskininkai City, and Taavi Aas, the president of the Association of Estonian Cities (ALAL) and the deputy mayor of Tallinn City. The agreements are about the cooperation of the CPAFFC with AEC and ALAL on promoting the development in fields of economy, culture, education, publication administration, city development of mutual local authorities, and the cooperation of the non-governmental organizations. Besides, Mr. Andris  Jaunsleinis, the president of Latvian Association of Local and Regional Governments (LALRG) met with the delegation. The contact between CPAFFC and LALRG was established by the meeting. In Lithuania, the delegation visited Trakai, the famous historic city, and had meetings with the leaders of Vilnius City Municipality, Administration of Druskininkai municipality, Administration of Kaunas City municipality and Panevys District Municipality. In Estonia, the mayor or deputy mayor of Tallinn , Narva, Rakvere met with the delegation. The delegation also had exchanges with the personages from industrial and commercial fields of the 3 countries, including meeting with the representatives of Lithuanian Confederation of Industrialists (LPK) and Latvian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), visiting the farm in Panevys District and Ida-Virumaa Industrial Areas Development Park.   Taiyuan City reached intention of exchanging elementary and middle school teachers with Vilnius, the capital city of Lithuania and Kaunas, the second largest city in Lithuania. In addition, Taiyuan and Jrvakandi reached intention of establishing friendship-city relation.

CPAFFC Delegation led by Mr. Chen Haosu, founding President of UCLG ASPAC attended the 4th UCLG ASPAC Congress hosted by the city of Jakarta, Indonesia from October 2nd to 5th. Themed as “Resilient Cities: Rethink, Rebuid and Revitalize”, the congress included 3 thematic symposiums and 6 panel meetings. 100-odd local government representatives from 17 countries and regions attended the Congress. New presidency of UCLG ASPAC, Executive Bureau and Council were elected and Jakarta Declaration was announced.    Chen Haosu, Founding President of UCLG ASPAC and the Newly-elected Presidency Leadership of UCLG ASPAC Announce the Commencement of the Congress in the Traditional Way Local Government Representatives from 17 Countries and Regions Attend the Meeting

At the invitation of CPAFFC, Rick Snyder, the Governor of Michigan leading a 50-member delegation visited Shanghai, Hangzhou, Guiyang, Wuhan and Chengdu from September 19 to 27, 2012. Governer Snyder attended the Western China International Fair in Chengdu and the opening ceremony of the Michigan center in Shanghai. He also made official visits to Mr. Zhu Congjiu, Deputy Governor of Zhejiang Province, Mr. Zhao Kezhi, Governor of Guizhou Province, Mr.Wang Guosheng, Governor of Hubei Province,and Mr. Wei Hong, Deputy Governor of Sichuan Province. While in Guizhou, Michigan signed the Economic Cooperation Memorandum with Guizhou Province.

      Wang Qishan, Vice Premier of China meeting with the delegation At the invitation of CPAFFC and organized by the Council of the Federation of Canada, a delegation of 192 members, including Premiers of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Manitoba, British Colombia, Prince Edward Island, Alberta, Northwest Territories and Yukon, government officials, business leaders and scholars from these Provinces and Territories, visited China from September 13 to 21. The delegation visited Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan and Shanghai Vice Mayor Ai Baojun met with the delegation. The delegation also met with officials from National Development and Reform Commission, State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Committee, Ministry of Commerce, and State Oceanic Affairs Administration. Some paid visit to their sister provinces in China. This visit further promotes friendly exchanges and pragmatic cooperation between China and Canada at the local government level.         President Li Xiaolin addressing the welcome banquet        Mr. Darrel Dexster, Premier of Nova Scotia Province, addressing the welcome banquet        banquet held in CPAFFC         President Li Xiaolin enjoying the show with foreign guests         group dancing of the Chinese and Foreign Participants        ethnic dancing of Qiang

Governor of Nevada Brian Sandoval leading a Nevada business leaders delegation visited Beijing and Shanghai from September 16 to 21, 2012. During their stay in China, he met with  Mayor Han Zheng of Shanghai, President Li Xiaolin of CPAFFC, Vice Minister Wang Chao of  MOFCOM, and Mr. Xia Xinghua, Deputy Administrator of CAAC.