Li Junming, mayor and deputy Party secretary of the city of Datong, Shanxi Province, met with Zhang Jinping, chairman of the Sino-American Friendship Association (SAFA) on Nov. 13 for talks on further cooperation in the fields of education, culture, tourism, science and technology, Datong Daily has reported.

SAFA was founded in 1992 as a non-partisan, non-profit, non-governmental organization to promote friendship between the United States and China. Over the years, it has enhanced cooperation between the two countries in business, education, culture, sports and tourism and has sponsored art, culture and education exchanges between experts, scholars and business leaders. It has made earnest efforts to promote interaction and cooperation between the provinces and states of the two countries and between their non-governmental organizations.

Li told the guests that Datong is an old, but dynamic city that wants to show itself to the world. It is going through a period of transformation for the leapfrog development and needs to increase its opening-up momentum. Openness is the keynote of our development policy, and SAFA can serve as an open platform to the world. He said he hopes the two countries can further their cooperation in education, science and technology and new energy development.

Zhang said at the meeting that SAFA is powerful with strong connections in the United States. It can take advantage of this to promote bilateral cooperation and to help Datong display its cultural wealth to the world.

Edited by Roger Bradshaw