On March 17, 2016, the seminar of “City Diplomacy –Theory and Practice” and “Blue Book of Chinese Cities’ Competitiveness” conducted by Chinese People’s Association For Friendship With Foreign Countries and Social Sciences Academic Press was held in Beijing. By July 1, 2015, China’s foreign friendship cities had reached 2209 pairs. China has become one of the countries which have the most formal foreign friendship cities in the world.

“Blue Book of Chinese Cities’ Competitiveness” points out that the exchange between China and foreign friendship cities mostly focuses on culture and art, trade, education and talents, and politics. The activities of these four areas account for 65% of all the exchange activities, and the activities of politics account for 20%.