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WASHINGTON, Feb. 4 (Xinhua) -- China's Anhui Province and U.S. State
of Maryland on Thursday held a virtual event to launch the commemoration
of the 40th anniversary of the establishment of their sister
relationship.
"Since the outbreak of COVID-19, sub-national governments, businesses
and non-governmental organizations in both China and the United States,
including Anhui and Maryland, rendered each other great support and
fought the pandemic shoulder to shoulder," Chinese Ambassador to the
United States Cui Tiankai said in a video speech. Echoing Cui's remarks, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, who attended
the virtual event with Maryland's first lady Yumi Hogan, said this
relationship "has never been more valued" as it is now, "as our regions
face the unprecedented challenges of the global COVID-19 pandemic." "Donations of medical supplies between our regions played a pivotal
role in our fight against this deadly virus and served as a powerful
testament to the friendship between our regions," Hogan said. The U.S. governor noted that countless citizens of both Maryland and
Anhui have had "so much to gain" from this relationship, including
shared experiences in arts, economic development, education and public
service. "We look forward to 40 more years of cooperation between Maryland and
Anhui, as we work to promote peace and prosperity for the people we
serve," Hogan said. At the virtual event, leaders from Anhui and Maryland reflected on
the key moments and achievements in the past 40 years, and exchanged
gifts to commemorate the 40th anniversary. Anhui and Maryland established sister relationship in June 1980,
making them the second pair of sister province and state between China
and the United States since the establishment of diplomatic ties in
1979. During the past four decades, Anhui and Maryland maintained close
communication and conducted fruitful cooperation in economy and trade,
science and technology, agriculture, education, culture and beyond. In his remarks, Li Jinbin, Communist Party chief of Anhui, said Anhui
and Maryland have established friendly relations over the past 40
years, which witnessed the continuous progress in China-U.S. relations. Anhui and Maryland reached broad consensus and achieved fruitful
outcomes in their cooperation, making contributions to the development
of China-U.S. relations, Li said. "State-to-state relations are underpinned by people-to-people
relations. They require the people's support and also serve the people,"
said Cui, noting that the friendship between the Chinese and American
people "goes back a long way," and there is "strong popular support for
our ties." "To engage with each other is the shared aspiration of the two
peoples. We need to follow the people's will, remove obstacles for their
engagement, and build more bridges for their exchanges and
cooperation," Cui said. Enditem
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