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At the invitation of the CPAFFC, Mark Sanford, governor of South Carolina of the U.S., together with his family paid a visit to Beijing, Qinghai and Tibet from July 17 to 26. Li Xiaolin, CPAFFC vice president, Wu Yingjie, executive vice chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region, and Wangdui,deputy prefectural commissioner of Xigaze, met with and entertained them successively.

Admiring Tibet
In his meeting with Governor Mark Sanford and his family, Vice Chairman Wu Yingjie said, the Central Government adopts a special policy of supporting Tibets development and puts a great amount of funds into Tibets infrastructure construction, protection of environment and cultural heritage, and improvement of education and peoples livelihood. Sixteen provinces and cities and 18 large state-owned enterprises in the country also give great support to Tibets development. In recent years Tibet has achieved significant social and economic development and maintained an annual economic growth rate of over 12 percent for 7 consecutive years, laying a strong material foundation for the Tibetan people of various ethnic groups to live and work in peace and contentment. Wu gave a detailed briefing about the efforts to help farmers and herdsmen increase their income, improve medical care in the agricultural and pastoral areas, provide education for the children of farmers and herdsmen, step up affordable housing construction, respect religions of ethnic groups and promote environmental protection. As to Tibets external exchanges, Vice Chairman Wu said, Tibet has got many channels to carry out its external exchanges and kept active contacts with the United States. He hoped that Governor Sanford would give more help and support for the exchanges and cooperation between South Carolina and Tibet.

To visit Tibet is Governor Sanfords dream for years, so this visit is of special significance to him. During his visit in Tibet, the construction of infrastructural facilities and protection of ethnic religions and culture left a deep impression on him.He said, the political, economic and cultural development in Tibet is beyond his expectation. The Chinese government and various social circles have given great support and put enormous resources into Tibets infrastructure construction, cultural development and protection of religions and culture. In making use of natural resources, Tibet is much more advanced than what he has expected.Everywhere along the Qinghai-Tibet Railway and in various cities suburbs, equipment for generation of solar energy, wind energy and hydroelectric power can be seen. Tourism in Tibet has a huge potential of development, so has the tourism in South Carolina which receives more than 30 million tourists every year. He thus suggested that South Carolina and Tibet carry out cooperation in tourism.
Governor Sanford said, this visit has helped him have a better understanding of Tibet. The Tibetan people are living a peaceful and secured life and enjoying freedom of religion. Some Western media have given a seriously distorted picture of Tibet. He said, those US congressmen, government officials and media that have bias against China should come to China to see for themselves so as to experience and know about the progress and development brought to China by reform and opening up.
Strengthening Exchanges
During his visit to China Governor Sanford said many times, in comparison with what he saw during his first visit to China in the 1980s, China has made unbelievable progress in every aspect. It is an extraordinary achievement that China has enabled the largest number of people to have the greatest freedom and improvement of their livelihood in the shortest period of time. China is an important force in the world in the 21st century and will play a pivotal role in the coming tens of years. He hoped that the United State and China would continue to strengthen contacts and exchanges in various fields and enhance understanding and friendship.
People-to-people exchange is an important field in promoting the development of Sino-US relations. In her meeting with Governor Sanford and his party, CPAFFC Vice President Li Xiaolin briefed about the CPAFFCs work, people-to-people exchanges between the two countries and friendship cities. She expressed appreciation of Governor Sanfords long-time contributions to the development of Sino-US relations and hoped that he would encourage more officials of the state government to visit China to experience and know about the reality of Chinas development and peoples life.
Governor Sanford said, people-to-people exchanges are very important. Through this visit he has gained a better understanding about the CPAFFC and admires the important role that the CPAFFC plays in promoting friendship and exchanges between the people of China and other countries in the world. He said, though the government of South Carolina set up a representative office in Shanghai as early as in 2005, the scope of its work only covers the coastal areas. In future the office will actively carry out cooperation with Chinas interior areas. He hoped that the CPAFFC would help the office expand its working spheres and channels for exchanges.
Governor Sanford said, the younger generation is the future of US-China relations, and this is one of his main reasons to bring his family to China. He hoped that through the visit his children would become interested in China and understand China so as to make contributions to the development of US-China relations in future.