On November 21, 2025, Yang Wanming, President of the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC), met with a delegation from the city of Gyeongju, the ROK, led by Mayor Joo Nak-young with officials from the Gyeongju city government and council, and representatives from various sectors.
President Yang Wanming welcomed Mayor Joo Nak-young and the delegation to China. He congratulated Gyeongju on hosting a successful 32nd APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting, and commended Gyeongju's efforts in promoting practical cooperation between subnational governments of China and the ROK and the friendship between the two peoples.
President Yang Wanming stated that over the 33 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the ROK, exchanges and cooperation in various fields have yielded fruitful results, benefiting both countries and the peoples. President Xi Jinping's trip to the ROK for the APEC meeting and a state visit, during which he held a meeting with President Lee Jae-myung and reached a series of important consensuses, set the direction for the development of China-ROK relations.
President Yang Wanming further pointed out that the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee reviewed and adopted the recommendations for the 15th Five-Year Plan, which made it clear that China will further comprehensively deepen reform and unswervingly expand high-standard opening-up. Chinese modernization means new opportunities for the development of countries around the world, including the ROK. The CPAFFC attaches great importance to exchanges and cooperation between Chinese and foreign subnational governments. It has established several subnational cooperation platforms, such as the China-Korea Governors Forum, the China-Japan-ROK Friendship City Exchange Conference, and the RCEP Local Governments and Friendship City Cooperation (Huangshan) Forum. He expressed hope to work with Gyeongju to implement the important consensus reached by the two heads of state, expand mutually beneficial cooperation, deepen people-to-people friendship, and elevate the China-ROK Strategic Cooperative Partnership to a higher level.
Joo Nak-young commended the CPAFFC's long-standing contribution to ROK-China subnational exchanges and people-to-people exchanges. He noted that Gyeongju has a long history of friendly exchanges with China, having established sister city or friendly exchange relations with nine Chinese localities. He expressed Gyeongju's readiness to leverage the subnational cooperation platforms established by the CPAFFC and utilize the city's advantages as a high-tech hub to strengthen exchanges and cooperation with Chinese subnational governments, contributing to the healthy and stable development of ROK-China subnational cooperation and bilateral relations.
Zhu Dan, Director-General of the Department of East Asian Affairs of the CPAFFC, and Lee Dong-hyeop, Chairman of the Gyeongju City Council, among others, were present at the meeting.
