China’s push for closer US ties to focus on Greater Bay Area, Yangtze economic hubs

Name: High hopes for China’s Greater Bay Area, but integrating 11 cities will pose challenges
Uploaded: 2024-01-02T14:00:21.000Z
Duration: 6 min 19 s
Description: High hopes for China’s Greater Bay Area, but integrating 11 cities will pose challenges

‘Vast room’ for links with San Francisco and New York City bay areas, head of Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries says

Group’s president Yang Wanming’s comments come as China focuses on non-governmental and local-level interactions with the US amid push to reset ties

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President Xi Jinping with a Golden State Warriors basketball jersey gifted to him by California governor Gavin Newsom, ahead of a welcome dinner in San Francisco in November. Photo: X/SpokespersonCHN

Orange Wang

Published: 10:00pm, 2 Jan 2024Updated: 11:42pm, 2 Jan 2024

The Greater Bay Area will be among major economic hubs in focus as China seeks to drive people-to-people ties with the United States in the new year, the head of a key semi-official Chinese foreign affairs body has said.

Yang Wanming, president of the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC), said there was “vast room” for collaboration between the southern Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area megalopolis with the San Francisco and New York City bay areas.

There was also similar potential for cooperation between the Yangtze River Economic Belt and the Mississippi River Basin, Yang told state backed digital outlet The Paper in an interview published on Tuesday.

Apart from Hong Kong and Macau, the Greater Bay Area covers nine megacities in China’s prosperous Guangdong province, including tech hub Shenzhen. The eastern Yangtze River Economic Belt, centred around Shanghai, covers 11 provinces and municipalities along the world’s third longest river.

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High hopes for China’s Greater Bay Area, but integrating 11 cities will pose challenges

“Our association will continue to coordinate and advance mutual visits and exchanges between those [US and Chinese] regions, promoting regional economic development and delivering tangible development interests to more local areas in both countries,” Yang said in the interview published on Tuesday.