Heroic Hubei: Rebirth from the Fire and Renew Glory --QCIT I

At the regular press conference of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on April 7, Spokesperson Zhao Lijian announced: At 16:45 on April 12, the theme of "Heroic Hubei: Rebirth from the Fire and Renew Glory" will be held in the Blue Hall of the South Building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Hubei Global Special Promotion Event by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

On March 7 this year, at the press conference of the Fourth Session of the 13th National People’s Congress, State Councilor and Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi mentioned Hubei in particular, saying that the heroic people of Hubei and the people of Wuhan offer their homes for everyone and contribute to the nation’s victory over the epidemic. It has made great sacrifices and made important contributions to supporting the global fight against the epidemic. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will hold a special global promotion conference for Hubei in April this year when the spring is blooming, to show the world the new face of Hubei's rebirth and help Hubei build a new bridge for foreign cooperation.

 

The open Hubei has attracted the attention of the world. The increase in internationalization has brought Wuhan closer and closer to the world.

 

In 1979, Hubei and Ohio established a sister province-state relationship, becoming the first pair of friendly provinces and states in the history of China and the United States, opening the prelude to Hubei's "international circle of friends". Today, Hubei’s “international circle of friends” has become more and more popular. As of the end of 2020, it has concluded 104 pairs of sister cities with 43 countries on 5 continents, most of which are “old friends” from the United States and France. Hubei ranks sixth in the country in terms of the number of sister cities, and first in the central region. It has won the "International Sister Cities Exchange and Cooperation Award" issued by the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries for two consecutive years.

 

As of the end of February 2021, Hubei has established trade relations with more than 200 countries and regions, and more than 15,000 foreign companies have settled in Hubei. As of the end of 2020, 321 of the world's top 500 companies have settled in Hubei. Hewlett-Packard, Cummins, etc. set up R&D centers in Hubei, and Siemens of Germany and Cisco of the United States set up regional headquarters in Hubei.

 

"Relatives" who have gone for 39 years: Duisburg, Germany

 

On October 8, 1982, the Mayor of Duisburg Josef Krings and the then Mayor of Wuhan Li Zhi signed a sister city agreement. Wuhan and Duisburg formally became sister cities, becoming the first friendly pair between China and Germany. city.

 

Since 1978, the iron and steel enterprises of the two cities have started close cooperation. A joint consortium composed of Duisburg-based company Mannesmann-Demag, Krupp Industrial Technologies, and Thyssen Consulting has built a cold-rolled steel plant in Wuhan. At that time, there were about 300 German engineers living in Wuhan with their families, most of them from Duisburg.

 

One day, a German engineer accompanied his wife who had just arrived in Wuhan on a walk along the Yangtze River. His wife saw the scenery where the Han River meets the Yangtze River and could not help but think of her hometown. Duisburg was located at the intersection of the Rhine River and its tributaries.

 

At that time, Duisburg and Wuhan were both industrial cities, and both belonged to the iron and steel industry centers of the two countries. The engineer's wife wrote a letter to the mayor after returning, calling on Duisburg and Wuhan to form a sister city.

 

On October 8, 1982, Josef Krings, the mayor of Duisburg at the time, and Li Zhi, the mayor of Wuhan, formally signed the agreement on the establishment of sister cities.

 

In August 1984, Duisburg sent the first batch of technical experts to Wuhan through the Federal German Retirement Expert Service Bureau. One of them is Werner Grisch. In November of that year, Grisch was hired by the Wuhan Municipal Government as the director of Wuhan Diesel Engine Factory, and the first "foreign factory director" after China's reform and opening up took office.

 

The friendship between Wuhan and Duisburg is still heating up. On September 11, 2015, the German Federal Railways held a ceremony in Duisburg, a sister city of Wuhan, and grandly named a passenger train running in the Ruhr area as "Wuhan China" ("Wuhan China"). This is the first passenger train named after a foreign city in German history.

The first pair of Sino-US sister cities: Ohio, USA

 

On October 31, 1979, Hubei and Ohio signed an agreement on the establishment of friendly province-state relations. This was the first pair of friendly province-state relations established by the two sides after the formal establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the United States.

 

At this time, less than a year has passed since the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, and less than a year has passed since the formal establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the United States. A banner for the opening up of a place to the outside world".

 

James Rhodes, then Governor of Ohio, visited Hubei. According to Zhao Guangfu, a staff member of the Provincial Foreign Affairs Office at the time, after visiting Beijing, Rhodes proposed to visit a province in China, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs recommended Hubei Province.

 

During their stay in Hubei, Rhodes and his entourage inspected the Provincial Museum, East Lake, Wuhan Iron and Steel Company, Qingshan Thermal Power Plant, Wuhan University, and the Second Wuhan National Cotton Plant. At the thank-you banquet held in Wuhan, Rhodes publicly read out the official document inviting Chen Pixian and other leaders of Hubei Province to visit Ohio.

 

From August 14th to September 6th, Chen Pixian, then the first secretary of Hubei, led a Hubei delegation to visit Ohio. Just over a month later, on October 29 of that year, a delegation led by Henry McShall, the Deputy Speaker of the Ohio Senate, visited Hubei.

 

On October 31, 1979, Hubei Province and Ohio of the United States formally signed an agreement on the establishment of sister province-state relations, becoming the first pair of friendly provinces and states in the history of China and the United States.

 

The first sister city to establish diplomatic relations with Wuhan: Oita City

 

In 1974, Wuhan Iron and Steel Plant started the 1.7-meter rolling mill project. The continuous casting workshop and cold-rolled sheet plant of the 1.7-meter rolling mill project were imported from the former West Germany, and the 1700mm hot-rolled sheet plant and silicon steel sheet plant were imported from Japan. The 1700mm sheet plant was constructed with the assistance of Oita Steel Works of Nippon Steel Corporation. Japan’s Nippon Steel Co., Ltd.’s Oita Iron Works sent a group of engineers and technicians to the Wuhan Iron and Steel Plant to help solve problems encountered during construction. Wuhan Iron and Steel Plant also sent a group of engineers and technicians to the Oita Iron Works to learn the operation and technological process of the hot rolling production line.

 

The president of Nippon Steel Corporation is called Eishiro Saito. Eishiro Saito often visits the Wuhan Iron and Steel Plant and gradually learns about the situation in Wuhan. At that time, Wuhan City, supported by the iron and steel industry, developed machinery manufacturing, petrochemical, shipbuilding, and textile industries, which was very similar to the situation in Oita City.

 

After Eishiro Saito returned to Japan in 1975, he made a special trip to visit Mr. Masami Sato, who was just elected mayor of Oita City, and introduced the development of Wuhan City. After hearing this, Sato Masumi became very interested in this Chinese city that he had never been to. He hoped that Oita and Wuhan would become sister cities, and he wrote a letter in his own hand, entrusting Eishiro Saito to convey it to Wuhan. aspect.

 

However, this letter sank like a stone to the sea, and there was no news. By 1978, things had turned for the better. On August 12 of that year, with the signing of the Sino-Japanese Treaty of Peace and Friendship, a new chapter in the history of Sino-Japanese relations opened, and it also cleared the way for the signing of sister cities between Wuhan and Oita.

 

On September 7, 1979, Wuhan City and Oita City formally signed a sister city relationship agreement. After the sister city relationship agreement was signed, Wuhan and Oita presented gifts and pennants to each other. The gift presented by Wuhan City to Oita City is a huge Chinese painting "Sakura Peony" with peony and cherry blossoms by the famous Hubei painter Wen Juntian. The peony is the national flower of China, and the cherry blossom is the national flower of Japan. This painting symbolizes the noble friendship between China and Japan and the two peoples.

 

As a result, Oita City became the first sister city of Wuhan.

 

Wuhan and Pittsburgh, USA

 

Greater Wuhan is famous for its "steel" and "river city". The Yangtze River and Han River meet in the city center, making the three towns of Wuhan stand apart by the river; and the city of Pittsburgh in the United States is also known as the "Steel Capital of the World" and the "Bridge Capital". The Origna River and the Menglongmeihaila River merge into the Ohio Estuary in the city center.

 

On May 7, 1982, the city of Pittsburgh, known as the "U.S. Steel Center" in history, established a sister city relationship with Wuhan. In the fields of economy and trade, culture, education, science, technology, etc., various forms are adopted to carry out extensive exchanges and cooperation.

 

Wuhan and Bangkok become "sister cities"

On November 21, 2013, Wuhan and Bangkok formed a friendly exchange city. As the “Belt and Road” construction continued to align with Thailand’s national development strategy, the exchanges and cooperation between Wuhan and Thailand continued to deepen and expand.

 

On November 16, 2018, at the China International Sister Cities Conference, Wuhan and Bangkok signed a sister city relationship agreement.

 

Thailand has been the preferred destination for outbound tourism of Wuhan citizens in recent years. There are direct flights from Wuhan to Bangkok with 57 round-trip flights every week. The direct ocean route from Wuhan Yangluo Port to Bangkok Port via Shanghai Waigaoqiao Port, which opened in July 2014, runs smoothly, with two flights a week.

 

Wuhan and Arnhem, the Netherlands

 

The exchange and cooperation between Wuhan and Arnhem in the Netherlands began in 1995, during which the two cities exchanged visits frequently. Arnhem Warmier Consulting Company used the Dutch government grant to construct the Erfeishan Waste Treatment Project in Wuhan. The total investment of the project is 134 million yuan, of which the Dutch government loaned 9 million yuan. On September 7, 1999, Wuhan and Arnhem in the Netherlands established sister cities.

 

In addition to Wuhan, other cities and prefectures have also made many "foreign friends"

 

Qianjiang City and Heidenheim City, Germany

 

Heidenheim is a city in the eastern part of Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany, and is the capital and largest city of Heidenheim County. In 1987, the Red Cross Society of Baden-Württemberg assisted Qianjiang County People's Hospital with more than 700,000 yuan in medical equipment such as ambulances, and Heidenheim County Hospital trained emergency personnel for Qianjiang. The journey of friendship between the two cities also began. On July 5, 1994, the two parties signed an agreement at the Emer Hall of Heidenheim City Hall to formally establish a sister city relationship.

 

Enshi City and Isle of Wight, England

 

At the beginning of June 2018, Enshi City joined hands with a new friend thousands of miles away-Isle of Wight, England. The two parties became sister cities and signed a memorandum of understanding. Hubei overseas sister cities will expand.

 

Which country has the most "old friends": the United States and France

 

Counting down the 42 countries that have established relationships with Hubei, most of them are "old friends" from the United States and France.

 

With the help of the cooperation between sister cities, the United States has become Hubei’s largest trading partner and largest exporter. There are more than 1,000 enterprises in Hubei and the United States, and it has created "Wuhan and Chicago-dual cities", "Optics Valley and Silicon Valley-dual cities". The new situation of cooperation with special features such as "Valley".

 

The friendship between Hubei and France began in the 1990s. Since Hubei and the New Aquitaine Region of France formally established on May 9, 1996, the momentum of exchanges and cooperation has been rapid. There are more than 100 French investment cooperation projects in Hubei, and Hubei has become one of the regions with the largest number of French investment projects in China and the highest density.

 

Wuhan and Bordeaux, France are known as "the best sister cities for the development of China and France". Bordeaux is also the first city in France to introduce Wuhan, China in Chinese on its official website. Hubei and the French Aquitaine Region have been awarded the "Sino-French Local Government Cooperation Award" at the China-France Local Government Cooperation High-level Forum for three consecutive years due to outstanding cooperation achievements.

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