City builds on long history with US

Zhanjiang changes tack by moving away from cooperation solely within Asia to a broader overseas strategy

The city of Zhanjiang, at the southern tip of the Chinese mainland, has long been a pioneer in Sino-US relations.

In the latter half of the 19th century, local resident Chen Lanbin led a group of 30 young students to the United States during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), in what was the first such government-sponsored visit. Chen later became the first Chinese envoy to the US, playing an important role in the two countries' diplomacy.

These days, Zhanjiang retains close ties with the US through economic, cultural and academic exchanges.

Party chief of Zhanjiang Liu Xiaohua will visit Seattle and Los Angeles in October, including a visit to consult with leading information technology company Microsoft on how to develop Zhanjiang as a "smart" city.

Liu said Zhanjiang wants to use Microsoft's technology and experience to transform and upgrade its local industries.

"During the past decades, for international cooperation, our emphasis has been on Asian countries because of the geographical advantages," he said. "But now, along with the growth of Zhanjiang's maritime economy, the goal of Zhanjiang is to build a central city of the Beibu Gulf. We want to upgrade the city and its industries. We want to expand our cooperation with other regions, and Europe and America will be the focus."

Liu will also visit Port of Long Beach, California, while in the US, to strengthen shipping services between the two port cities. Zhanjiang has shipping routes to 114 countries and regions, he said, and wishes to open more services to US port cities.

Zhanjiang Mayor Wang Zhongbing said the city has a close economic and trade relationship with the US, currently the largest importer to Zhanjiang. The city currently exports furniture, electrical appliances and aquatic products to the US. Last year, trade volume between the two reached $1 billion.

Cultural exchanges are also very active, he said, with a sister-city relationship between Zhanjiang and Atlantic City and consultation with Portland, Oregon, on Zhanjiang's plan to build an environmentally sound "Footprint City".

Academic cooperation

Academic cooperation is also important, Wang said.

"Many Zhanjiang-based universities cooperate with foreign universities in marine economy, oceanographic medicine and vocational training," he said.

Such cooperation falls into two major parts. Local universities hire teachers from other countries, including the US and Europe, while also seeking to attract scientific talent from the US, the EU and Canada to form research teams in such fields as marine biology and marine foods.

"With the boom of the ocean economy, Zhanjiang, following China's Belt and Road Initiative, has established an innovation-oriented strategy to carry out scientific cooperation at the university level to promote city and industry transformation," Wang said.

The mayor said the city continues to build on the early contributions of the country's first ambassador.

"Harsh as the conditions were," he said, "many intellectuals including Chen Lanbin managed to go out to visit the United States more than 100 years ago. Nowadays, Zhanjiang, one of the first batch of opening-up cities in China, is ready to build an open economy with steel, petrochemicals and papermaking as three pillar industries. Zhanjiang is willing to learn from advanced countries to upgrade itself and conduct more exchanges with them in economy, technology and culture."

Contact the writer at traciebarrett@gmail.com

(China Daily 09/22/2015 page17)