Shanghai Mayor meets California Governor to deepen Sino-US relations

Shanghai Mayor Gong Zheng met with a delegation led by California Governor Gavin Newsom on Sunday.

Gong welcomed Newsom's visit on behalf of the Shanghai Municipal People's Government. He said President Xi Jinping pointed out in a meeting with Newsom that the foundation and hope of China-US relations lie in the people, the future is with the youth and the vitality is with the localities.

As China's largest economic center, Shanghai is an important bridge for friendly exchanges between China and the US. As early as 1980, Shanghai and San Francisco became sister cities and carried out fruitful cooperation in various fields. We are willing to actively promote friendly exchanges between Shanghai and California for the healthy and stable development of China-US relations, the mayor said.

California's economy ranks first among all states in the US, and Shanghai welcomes more California companies to participate in the Import Expo. The city looks forward to practical cooperation in information technology, biomedicine and intelligent manufacturing and encourages investment and development in each other's location to achieve common development.

Shanghai will continue to create a first-class business environment to help various companies, including those from California, achieve better development in Shanghai. We hope that the two places will deepen mutual learning in the fields of environmental protection, green energy, port emission reduction and offshore wind energy and promote higher-quality and more sustainable development, Gong said.

At the same time, the city hopes to strengthen cultural exchanges, closely communicate with personnel, deepen cooperation in education, sports, culture, and youth, enhance mutual understanding and deepen the friendship between the two places.

Newsom said that California and Shanghai have a proud history. San Francisco and Shanghai have been friends for 43 years. The rapid changes in Shanghai are impressive. California and Shanghai have many similarities and are good at biopharmaceuticals, information technology, artificial intelligence and higher education.

They also have similar ambitions and visions in promoting green, low-carbon transformation. California and Shanghai need to strengthen cooperation in environmental protection and climate change and jointly promote green transformation and lead the world trend.

He is proud of the cooperation and memorandum of understanding signed by the two places at the local level, and California is willing to become a stable and strong cooperation partner for Shanghai, said Newsom

After the meeting, Gong and Newsom attended the ceremony for exchanging the text of the memorandum of understanding on climate and environmental cooperation between Shanghai and California. According to the memorandum of understanding, the two places will carry out cooperation in environmental protection, climate change response and promotion of clean energy development.