US Alabama State Governor Bob Riley Visits China

At the invitation of the CPAFFC and the Hubei Provincial People’s Government， Bob Riley， governor of Alabama State of the U.S.， led a 40-member delegation composed of personages from the state government， the business and education circles to China and visited Beijing， Wuhan and Jiangsu from July 8 to 13， 2006. State Councillor Tang Jiaxuan met with Bob Riley and his party. CPAFFC Vice President Li Xiaolin entertained the delegation. Yu Zhengsheng， secretary of the Hubei Provincial Committee of the CPC， Luo Qingquan， governor of Hubei， Li Yuanchao， secretary of the Jiangsu Provincial Committee of the CPC， and Liang Baohua， governor of Jiangsu Province， respectively met with and entertained the delegation. Hubei Province and Alabama State signed a memorandum on friendly cooperation.

State Councillor Tang Jiaxuan Meets with the Delegation

In his meeting with Bob Riley and his party， State Councillor Tang Jiaxuan said， in recent years， Sino-US relations on the whole have been developing steadily. State leaders and leading officials at different levels of the two countries have kept close contacts. In April of this year， President Hu Jintao made a successful visit to the United States. The heads of the two countries hold， China and the United States have extensive and important common strategic interests. The two countries are not only stakeholders， but also constructive cooperators. The two sides should look at and treat bilateral relations from the strategic and long-term point of view and push forward their constructive cooperative relationship in an all-round way in the 21st century. This will not only benefit the people of the two countries， but also promote peace， stability and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region and the world at large.

On Sino-US economic and trade relations， Tang said， the rapid development of China-U.S. economic and trade cooperation with the advantage of mutual complementarities has brought substantial benefits to the people of the two countries， and become important basis of bilateral relations. Mutual benefits and win-win results are the mainstream and essence of Sino-US economic and trade relations. Economic and trade cooperation between China and Alabama State which has rich natural resources and developed agriculture， forestry and service industry has broad prospects. Tang hoped that Alabama State would grasp the opportunity and further expand its cooperation with China to achieve win-win results， mutual benefits and common development

Tang also briefed the delegation about China’s peaceful development strategy. He said， since the reform and opening up in the late 1970s， China has successfully embarked on the road of peaceful development and made achievements that have attracted worldwide attention. But， China is still a developing country because of its large population and weak economic foundation. Its development is unbalanced， and there are many difficulties and challenges on the way of its advancement. China has a population 4 times larger than that of the United States. Last year China’s per capita GDP just reached 1，700 US dollars， less than one twentieth of that of the United States. In China’s rural areas there is still a surplus labour force of more than 100 million. Every year 24 million people in the cities need to get employment. To build a moderately prosperous society in all respects that benefits 1.3 billion people， China needs to make long sustained efforts. To persistently take the road of peaceful development is the inexorable choice based on China’s national conditions， the tradition of Chinese history and culture and the current trend of development in the world. It is in the fundamental interests of the Chinese people and conforms to the objective requirement of development and progress of the human society. The essence of China’s road of peaceful development is to develop itself by striving for a peaceful international environment and promote world peace through its own development. Facts have proved and will continue to prove that China’s development is a promotive factor to peace and stability of the world and will continue to bring opportunities of development for various countries in the world.

Deepen Cooperation in Various Aspects

One of the important purposes of Riley’s visit was to develop economic and trade relations with China. In the delegation there were more than 30 personages from Alabama business circles. In Beijing， Wuhan and Nanjing， economic and trade talks were arranged for the delegation， enabling them to have chances to contact and have discussion on cooperation with the Chinese entrepreneurs that had strength and the intention. Many entrepreneurs in the delegation said that the visit was rewarding and that they would come to China again in the not too distant future to make further contacts with Chinese enterprises.

In Wuhan， the delegation visited the Hubei Academy of Agricultural Sciences and listened to the briefing on the fruitful cooperation and exchanges between the Academy and Auburn University of Alabama State. The delegation exchanged views with the Wuhan Institute of Virology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences on prevention and cure of bird flu. Alabama State University and the China University of Geosciences signed an agreement on exchanges between the two universities. In Nanjing， the scientific research institutions concerned of Alabama State signed an agreement of cooperation with two hospitals in Jiangsu Province.