Chinese Vice-President Arrives in ParisVisiting Chinese Vice-President Hu Jintao arrived in Paris on Saturday after a stay in Bordeaux.During his three-day stay in Paris, Hu is expected to meet with French President Jacques Chirac, Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, French parliamentary leaders and leaders of the Communist Party of France, the Rally for the Republic and the Socialist Party. France is the third-leg of Hu's five-nation tour. On Thursday, he arrived in Lyon, the second largest city in France in the Rhone-Alps region, and on Friday he visited Bordeaux in the southwestern part of France. At a banquet hosted by Bordeaux Mayor Alain Juppe, the Chinese vice-president said that there exist close ties and immense perspective of cooperation between the city of Bordeaux and China. "The opening-up of China will create more favorable conditions and more promising perspectives for personalities from various fields in France in general, in Bordeaux in particular, to develop their activities of cooperation in China," Hu said. On his part, Juppe, who is former French prime minister, told the Chinese vice-president that Bordeaux attaches great importance to its cooperation with China. "The entry of China into the World Trade Organization and her winning the bid to host the Olympic Games in 2008 symbolize the country's willingness to open to the world," said Juppe. "The city-to-city exchange is a good way of rapprochement between our two peoples," he said. In 1998, Bordeaux formed twinship with Wuhan, a city in central China where French automobile company Citroen launched one of the largest automobile joint-ventures in China in the 1980s. |
| People's Daily Online --- http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/ |