As COVID-19 is spreading around the world, the residents in Beijing show great concern for what's happening in their sister cities. Ever since March when the city had just got through the most difficult times, Beijing has been actively supporting its sister cities' fight against the epidemic through timely donations and experience sharing.
The virus knows no borders, and friendship has no boundaries. After COVID-19 broke out, the sister cities all lent a helping hand to Beijing. The medical protective gowns and gloves donated by Cologne arrived in Beijing on February 13, after which the protective gowns, goggles, face shields, thermal imagers and masks donated by Seoul arrived in three batches. Following that, more sister cities expressed their wish to donate, asking what we needed and sending letters of support.
The donations and support has epitomized the friendship that brings people close together and helps people through difficult times. As the epidemic is having an impact on more places around the world, Beijing, having just stepped out of the difficulty, is reciprocating the kindness by providing its sister cities with much-needed supplies based on close communication with them.
“We've learnt that cities like Seoul, Tehran, Tokyo and Yokohama are facing an enormous challenge due to serious shortage in supplies important for their fight against the epidemic. While ensuring our own needs for epidemic control, Beijing decides to donate supplies to help those four cities through this tough period.” An official from the Foreign Affairs Office of Beijing announced for the first time the city's donation plan at the epidemic control news briefing on March 12.
In fact, three days before the announcement, the first batch of supplies donated by Beijing to its sister cities was already handed over to the Iranian embassy in China to help Tehran fight the virus. In March 16 and 17, the materials donated to Tokyo Prefecture and Yokohama arrived at the Narita International Airport in two batches, and those to Seoul also arrived on March 17. The list went on to include Paris, Berlin, Madrid and Lisbon.
The timely help from Beijing delivers a message of warmth. When the donations arrived, Mayor of Cologne Henriette Reker expressed her gratitude on the official website of the city government, and Mayor of Rome Virginia Raggi enumerated the types and quantities of donations on the city government's website, vowing to distribute them to front-line health care workers as soon as possible.
Statistics show that Beijing has made donations to 23 sister cities, providing such advanced medical equipment as smart, mobile and instant temperature detectors, integrated invasive/non-invasive therapeutic ventilators and nucleic acid testing kits, TCM products like Jinhua Qinggan and Lianhua Qingwen granules, and much-needed protective gears such as masks, disposable gloves, shoe covers and hand sanitizing gel.
What Beijing offers is not only materials, but also experience.
At the request of Rio De Janeiro, Paris, Moscow, Helsinki and other cities, the Foreign Affairs Office of Beijing decided to host a video conference on the evening of April 21 to share with these sister cities its experience in fighting the epidemic. The meeting attracted more participants than expected. Altogether 26 sister cities and 3 international organizations attended it.
The meeting sought to provide a useful answer for all questions raised by the sister cities. On treatment of COVID-19 patients, Chinese representatives introduced the differentiated treatment plans for mild and serious cases and TCM's important role in clinical treatment; on prevention and control, they shared what Beijing had done to prevent imported cases, intensify community responses, and track close contacts; on the resumption of work and production and job creation, they talked about the effective measures taken to help enterprises lower operating cost and address their liquidity problems.
Previously, the Foreign Affairs Office had invited community officials to participate in the two video conferences held by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Health Commission, on which Chinese experts discussed the epidemic with the representatives of Central and Eastern Europe, and with those of Latin America and the Caribbean, respectively.
An official from the Foreign Affairs Office told the reporter that the many heart-warming letters of sympathy, donations and knowledge-sharing activities helped cement the friendship between Beijing and its sister cities. Working closely with each other, Beijing and the sister cities hit by COVID-19 will surely get through this difficult time.
(By Yang Xuecong, reporter of Economic Daily)
