What it means to be a friend of China? — the 2021 Online Dialogue for People-to-People Cooperation (Part 6)

During the 2021 Annual Meeting of New Zealand China Friendship Society (NZCFS), Beijing People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (BPAFFC) was invited to hold the “BPAFFC-NZCFS Online Dialogue” jointly with NZCFS on May 22, 2021. Zhang Qian, Executive Vice President of BPAFFC, Dai Jianjun, Level II Bureau Rank Official and about 50 New Zealand guests including Dave Bromwich, President of NZCFS, Sir David Carter, NZCFS’s Newly Appointed Patron and presidents of all the branches of NZCFS attended the dialogue. 

At the dialogue, Zhang Qian, Executive Vice President of BPAFFC, introduced the recent major works of BPAFFC, especially the “Webinar on the Communist Party of China (CPC) and Foreign Friends”, held to celebrate of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC. Many New Zealand friends participated in the online dialogue. Combining the theme of the 2021 annual meeting of NZCFS — “What it means to be a friend of China”, she stated that friends should help us understand the world from a richer and more diversified perspective, and understand different countries and peoples through first-hand information instead of second-hand information. Especially when the pandemic is spreading all over the world, to be a friend of China means that we can care for and support each other and we can join our efforts, cooperate and overcome various difficulties together. When asked, she also told New Zealand friends about the exchanges between Chinese teenagers and foreign teenagers carried out by BPAFFC.

Sir David Carter was appointed to be NZCFS’s Patron in 2021. He emphasized to strengthen the exchange and cooperation with BPAFFC and work together with BPAFFC to promote the people-to-people friendship between New Zealand and China. President Dave Bromwich thanked BPAFFC for its recent-several-year great support for the NZCFS, especially the joint efforts of BPAFFC and NZCFS in organizing the Professional Exchange Program for Young People of China and New Zealand that has achieved abundant results and set up an extensive platform for the exchange and cooperation between the young people of China and New Zealand. 

At the dialogue, BPAFFC and NZCFS aired their views and fully communicated, contributed their ideas and exerted their efforts for China-New Zealand friendship and cooperation. The two parties both expressed that China and New Zealand had real feelings for each other and the common responsibilities of BPAFFC and NZCFS were to protect these feelings well, constantly enhance the trust, dispel the misgivings and strengthen the mutual understanding and friendship. The two parties discussed relevant issues in the post-pandemic era such as the innovative people-to-people friendship work paths and models and strengthening the communication between the teenagers of the two countries. For 2021 marks the 125th birthday of Kathleen Hall, BPAFFC and NZCFS agreed to jointly hold an online memorial meeting in the second half of the year. The two parties have also decided to renew their MOU that would expire this year and sign the MOU online at the memorial meeting.