European links

In France, the National Commission for Decentralized Cooperation (CNCD) oversees 70 towns, cities and departments across France with friendship agreements in China.

"Since China's opening up, there has been a lot of cooperation between France and China," says Jean-Claude Levy from the CNCD. "We passed a law in 1992 which gave towns in France a lot of autonomy in making agreements and cooperation with foreign cities.

"Governments can provide some assistance too, by contributing financially. At first it was about friendship, language and cultural exchange, but step by step it is changing to economic integration, which is now more important."

While many cities use cultural exchanges to boost economic activity, Eindhoven in the Netherlands went the other way. The city has built close ties with Nanjing in East China on the back of a business venture by Philips, the global electronics conglomerate, which was founded in Eindhoven.

"The relationship with Nanjing was established because Philips started a joint venture in the city," says Peet Rijken, from Eindhoven's local government. "At the time, Eindhoven was basically a one-company city. This meant that what was good for Philips was good for Eindhoven, because almost all the labor force in the city worked at Philips."

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But since then, exchanges between Eindhoven and Nanjing have expanded. Indeed, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the friendship, Eindhoven has gifted Nanjing a park, named after Vincent van Gogh, the famous artist who lived near Eindhoven and is increasingly popular in China. In return, Nanjing will build a Chinese pavilion in Eindhoven, with construction expected to start later this year.

"(The gifts) will function as a window to each others' cities," says Rijken.

At the handover ceremony of the Van Gogh Friendship Park in Nanjing in September 2011, the city's major, Ji Jianye, said the focus of cooperation would be on the economy, technology, modern agriculture, culture and communications. Nanjing, for example, will introduce advanced technology for its flower industry.

Scandinavia is another area of Europe keen on building local government ties with China. In Sweden, the town of Falkenberg (population 40,000) has forged a friendship agreement with Shijiazhuang (population 10 million), capital of North China's Hebei province, taking inspiration from the "ping-pong diplomacy" of the 1970s.

"It began in 2002 as a sister-city arrangement," says Henrik Lundahl from Falkenberg's local government. "Our political leaders wanted to get in contact with China. Falkenberg has a great ping-pong history, so we started with sports."

Since then, agreements have been signed covering table tennis, education and energy. Falkenberg now has a Confucius Classroom.

"It's important for every Swedish municipality to have a broad mind and closely watch international development," Lundahl says. "China is and will be even more important internationally. Chinese culture and philosophy are interesting and give us a new perspective.

"We have much to learn from each other and the more we co-operate, the better it will be. The people of the world must not just learn to co-exist, but to develop a future together."

For Shijiazhuang, little Falkenberg's table tennis tradition made all the difference and paved the way for better understanding.

"The mayor of Falkenberg came to visit a few times, and our middle-school table tennis teams paid return visits to Sweden, and this created a lot of harmony," says Meng Shuo, vice-director of Shijiazhuang Foreign Affairs Office.

Falkenberg has been offering support in environmental protection and energy recycling to its big industrial sister city.

Contact the writers at bartram.david@gmail.com and jixiang@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 03/15/2013 page16)