During a sister city visit filled with formal proclamations and presentations, leaders from Nanchong, China, and China’s consul general to the United States took advantage of the unscripted moments to get to know the city of Toledo.
The group, which included Nanchong’s mayor, several city councilmen, and a delegation from China’s consul general to the United States, Ping Huang, began the day with a boat ride along the Maumee River. As they passed landmarks like Owens Corning’s headquarters, sunflower murals, and the National Museum of the Great Lakes, all had their phones out to photograph the sights.
More importantly, the ride offered the leaders an opportunity to speak informally.
“When people meet each other, we get to know each other better,” Mr. Huang said. “As government officials, we need to create chances like this for people to have direct contact. … We’ve only been here for half a day, but we already saw lots of good things happening here. I didn’t know Toledo had such a beautiful river.”
During the ride, Councilman Carrie Hartman talked with several Chinese leaders about the riverfront construction projects, and Jim Rush, who helped organize the event, spoke with Mr. Huang about international travel and education, among several other issues.
From there, the group went to Glass City Metropark for the formal ceremony and exchange of gifts with Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz. After introducing himself to the two leaders, everybody sat down for a few remarks.
The mayor began the event by welcoming Nanchong’s Mayor Yin Nianhong, who was making his first visit not only to Toledo but to the United States.
In his remarks, Mr. Kapszukiewicz emphasized that, although the press and national politicians prefer to highlight international tensions, “embedded in the DNA of our city is a commitment to work with one another, to grow with one another, to develop new friendships, and to expand the human understanding we all share no matter what country we’re from.”
Although the Toledo mayor focused nearly the entirety of his speech on the human aspect of the visit, his Nanchong counterpart addressed the primary matter at the heart of the cities’ relationship — the economy.
After thanking Toledo for both its hospitality and more than 20 years of friendship, especially during the pandemic, he highlighted some of the factors that make Nanchong a desirable economic partner for the city, namely a population of 7 million, 150,000 of whom are college students, and a GDP of nearly $200 million.
“Although the two cities are really far away from each other, I believe we have lots of similarities, and we can compensate each other in a lot of ways,” Mr. Yin said through an interpreter. “We sincerely hope that both cities will work together and build on what we already have established in the past, and also work in the areas including industrial development, trade, investment, education, and scientific research.”
More specifically, he expressed his hope to learn about car manufacturing, foreign trade, and urban planning from Toledo in the future.
Mr. Huang echoed those remarks, highlighting the “loads and loads” of business opportunities in China and the importance of bringing people together in the face of rising economic tensions on the national scale.
Councilmen Hartman and Cerssandra McPherson concluded the speakers by thanking their guests for coming and pointing out all that Toledo has to offer.
The two mayors then signed official proclamations of friendship, and Mayor Yin gifted Mayor Kapszukiewicz a silk scroll depicting the Jialing River in Nanchong. With the formalities concluded, they sat down for lunch as the Toledo Chinese Dance Group performed, and Kejun Chen played a tradi-tional Chinese instrument called the guzheng.
Speaking after the event, Councilman McPherson began by praising the performances.
“The music and the dance, the culture, is just rich. That’s one thing about Chinese. They don’t drop it, they don’t lose it.”
However, while Ms. McPherson concurred with the mayor about the importance of partnering with international countries, she expressed some hesitancy about the types of economic exchange that the United States undertakes with China.
She was particularly concerned about America, and Toledo specifically, being overly reliant on Chinese imports without developing the ability to export at the same level. When thinking about the future, she said she hoped that leaders would ensure that economic exchanges would benefit not only China’s growth but also America’s.
“That’s the part that I see we are not doing well in the city of Toledo, is partnershipping and sharing what we have and learning what they have and how we can use what they have to make our city better,” Ms. McPherson said. “It sometimes seems to me that we were doing a lot of letting them come and buy and get, but what were we getting out of it? In the long run, we have to build generational wealth for the city of Toledo.”
Although the Toledo government representatives all departed after lunch, Paul Zito from the Regional Growth Partnership gave a presentation speaking to Ms. McPherson’s goals. Mr. Zito pointed out the potential for foreign direct investment in the electric vehicle, semiconductor, manufacturing, and communications industries, all of which thrive in Toledo thanks to its strong glass and solar production.
He highlighted that six Chinese companies already employ more than 1,200 workers in northwest Ohio and urged the leaders to consider growing that investment.
The Nanchong delegation also visited the University of Toledo to consider academic cooperation and programming.
However, sister cities events are not meant to tackle problems on the magnitude of U.S.-China economic policy. Rather, they build relationships that can serve as the foundation for broader cooperation in the future. As such Mr. Yin urged the Toledoans to visit Nanchong. On the other side, Mr. Kapszukiewicz said he hoped Monday would be the first of many visits. Mr. Huang seemed eager to oblige.
“This is the first impression,” he said. “I think I need to come back to learn more.”
Most Popular
Comments / 0