US-China Sister Cities Summit renews pledge to people-to-people ties By LIA ZHU in San Francisco | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2026-06-08 09:44 Diplomats, mayors and civic leaders from both sides of the Pacific gathered in San Francisco for the 8th US-China Sister Cities Summit, renewing their commitment to the subnational partnership that national governments alone cannot forge. Themed "Shared Efforts for High-quality City Development", the summit drew more than 150 Chinese delegates representing 15 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities across 12 cities, alongside 160 US delegates from 21 states and 36 cities. The gathering, held on Friday, featured exchanges on three central themes — green development and urban governance, culture and tourism, and education and youth. "Everything depends on meeting each other, shaking each other's hand, looking at each other in the eye," Carol Robertson Lopez, chair emeritus of Sister Cities International, told China Daily on the sidelines of the summit. Gatherings like this one, she said, do something that virtual exchanges cannot fully replicate. "When we have gatherings like this, it just seals the friendships that we've developed in many cases online." She added that hearing how cities in different countries have approached shared challenges is a form of practical benefit. "What's really important is just bringing the people together," she said. "It's interesting to hear all the different things, and we do get a lot of ideas that we can take back home." The gathering has grown into a platform for subnational diplomacy since its launch by the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, or CPAFFC, in 2014. China and the United States currently maintain 50 pairs of sister provinces and states, and 238 pairs of sister cities. Yang Wanming, president of the CPAFFC, pointed to California and San Francisco as proof of what local investment in