Feature: Online forum features U.S.-China cooperation on climate change

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- "Good morning, China!" "Good evening, America!"

For the third time this year, the same warm greetings kicked off an online forum held by the Oregon China Council (OCC) on Tuesday evening.

More than 80 officials, technicians, experts and entrepreneurs from China's Fujian Province and Tianjin Municipality, and the U.S. state of Oregon, in more than a dozen venues, participated in the Climate Change &Sustainability in Oregon &China Forum.

COMMON WISHES FOR COOPERATION

"We have jointly held the Oregon Agricultural Products Online Promotion Meeting and Online Education Seminar this year to build a cooperation platform for enterprises, institutions, and schools to deepen the friendship between us. Today's forum is another concrete action to implement the consensus of the leaders of the two countries, to expand the common interests of both sides, and to enlarge the pie of cooperation," said Wang Xu, vice mayor of Tianjin.

Guo Ningning, vice governor of Fujian Province, expressed her wish to continue to work together actively with Oregon to expand practical cooperation in climate change and other fields.

"We may carry out joint development of low-carbon technologies, strengthen investment and cooperation in green industries, jointly cultivate the carbon sink capacity of the ecosystem, and deepen the mutual exchange of national parks," she proposed.

"I was especially pleased to visit Fujian Province and Tianjin. I got a chance to see the people, the art, to see the deep history, and frankly, to see the joy of living that I saw while I was in China. We are all about the legacy in one way or another," Oregon State Senator Lew Frederick said.

Oregon State Senator Michael Dembrow believed that the partnerships in academic, business and regional sectors will benefit the relationship between two nations. "By focusing on what we have in common, what we can accomplish together, what will be mutually beneficial, we will create a more stable relationship."

"Oregon and China are economically connected... We also have an important cultural relationship and a shared concern about the need to protect our natural treasures. We need to replicate that partnership on a much wider scale when it comes to tackling climate change," U.S. Congressman Earl Blumenauer expressed a similar outlook in his video remarks.

TIME TO MEET CRISIS

According to Wang Donghua, Chinese Consul General in San Francisco, the China-U.S. relationship has developed into one that is characterized by the broadest range of common interests, the widest scope of cooperation, and the highest level of interconnection.

"The importance of China-U.S. relationship goes far beyond the bilateral scope, and the two countries share common responsibilities in addressing almost all major issues concerning world peace and development," he said.

Quoting "The time is always right to do the right thing" by Dr. Martin Luther King, Wang said that in the face of the climate crisis wreaking havoc and China-U.S. relationship staying at a critical juncture, each and every one is obliged to spare no effort to get the relationship right and turn the cooperation in response to climate change into real benefits.

"We also have within us a sense that there will be changes. We can be part of those changes. We can work and we will work together and make a difference," said Frederick.

"We have so much in common and are bound to one another in the defense of our planet and the legacy that we will leave to our children and our grandchildren," said Dembrow while moderating the forum's Grassroots NGOs panel session.

"There is enormous potential for partnerships between our sister states and provinces in doing this work. We can work together and we can learn from one another. These partnerships will benefit the health and the prosperity of the residents of our states," he added.

HOPE AND EXPECTATION

Blumenauer noted that meeting the climate crisis is a monumental task that no country can achieve alone. Successfully addressing a crisis like climate change won't happen overnight. "But if we keep working together bit by bit, piece by piece, there is hope."

"I think, frankly, the future looks pretty bright if we continue to work together to understand each other, to play, to laugh, and to work on making our cultures, our community here on Oregon and the communities in China better places," said Frederick.

The OCC board directors and several state senators said they felt that speeches from the Chinese participants were of high quality and informative. They had asked for the transcripts for "better digestion", OCC President Lan Jin told Xinhua on Wednesday.

Fujian Province and Tianjin Municipality established sister relationship with Oregon in 1984 and 2014 respectively. Being the initiator and one of the organizers, the OCC held the online forum along with the Foreign Affairs Office of Fujian Province and Tianjin Foreign Affairs Office.

Lan said that the forum showed how a "major country" like China could be "inclusive, generous, caring, and supporting." The success of the forum made him "full of expectations for the future."