China Promotes Efforts to Strengthen Ties with Blue American Cities

On Tuesday, Chinese state-controlled media announced efforts to strengthen economic ties between major Chinese cities and major American cities.

As the Daily Caller reports, the announcement was made by Yang Wanming, president of the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC), who made it public in an interview with The Paper, a media outlet controlled by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The effort will target the cities of San Francisco, California, and New York City, New York, and will link them up with the southern Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area.

“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,” said Yang in the interview.

Despite American manufacturing and technology becoming increasingly and dangerously reliant on China, several government officials still insist on further intertwining the two countries’ economies. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said publicly in December that the United States should not decouple from China, despite growing calls to do so over China’s theft of intellectual property rights, exploitation of third-world labor, and more.

Tensions have become more strained in recent months and years, with a number of motivating factors: The two countries have been engaged in an increasing trade war over the production of semiconductors and similar technology, with the U.S. controlling most of the intellectual property while China has a greater share of the minerals and other materials needed for production.

The island nation of Taiwan is also a source of tension, as a significant portion of semiconductor manufacturing is done there. China has repeatedly voiced its determination to take over the island, with a possible military conflict there threatening a global supply chain collapse.