US Diplomats Get More Involved in Local Politics
开篇：润墨网以专业的文秘视角，为您筛选了一篇US Diplomats Get More Involved in Local Politics范文，如需获取更多写作素材，在线客服老师一对一协助。欢迎您的阅读与分享！
With a foreign face and a cap over his head, Chris Wurzel looks quite conspicuoget="_blank">us in the crowd.
On the morning of January 12, around 9 o’clock, Chris Wurzel arrived at the People’s Hall in Nanjing, the capital city of eastern Jiangsu Province. Half an hour later, he will participate in the local People’s Congress as an observer during the opening session.
Different from other participants, Chris Wurzel doesn’t hold any green card, neither has he settled in Nanjing, he is Deputy Consul General for the US Consulate in Shanghai.
After the morning session concluded, he returned to Shanghai by taking the high-speed railway.
Over the past two years, the U.S. Consulate General has attended local congress in Suzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou among other cities. “Though observer can only attend the opening ceremony, I still feel very happy about that,” Chris Wurzel told reporters.
In 2012, to attend the local congress session on an even broader scale will become one of its priorities for the U.S. Embassy. Last month, about 5-6 consulate officials have been traveling extensively in the Yangtze River Delta.
It is reported that the British Embassy are also preparing to follow the United States by attending the local “two sessions.”
“The top concern is the economic growth target”
Chris Wurzel said the economic growth target discussed during the local “two sessions” was one of his “top con- cerns”. Foreign participants don’t have any specific need to find the answer in the two sessions, what they are most concerned about is the topic of China’s political life.
It’s not the first time that foreign consulates have begun to attend the “two sessions”. However, it has become more and more popular as the U.S. Consulate take the initiative to build up local connections.
“Usually two weeks before the meeting, we contact Foreign Affairs Office of the local government. They will help us communicate with the NPC and CPPCC, everything is going well.” U.S. Consul General in Shanghai Robert Griffiths said.
Build connections with “VIP” all over China
U.S. Consulate attends not only the “two sessions” of cities in the Yangtze River Delta, they also extend their reach to inland provinces and cities. “Some cities take the initiative to invite us, which makes us very happy,” said Chris Wurzel, hail- ing a more open attitude adopted by Chinese cities.
“In recent years, China’s second and third tier cities as well as coastal cities are developing very rapidly, our interest in them is also growing, so we applied to attend the local congress, in order to better understand the latest development in these important provinces and cities.” Robert Griffiths said, “More importantly, you can get in touch with local political and economic circles.”
Robert Griffiths believes that “two sessions” present an important opportunity to establish personal relationships with local officials and to know what they are focusing on. Otherwise, there is no other alternative to obtain grass roots information from inland China.
Getting to know each other is a mutual process. Chris Wurzel said their next goal was to promote relationship between Chinese provinces, municipalities and local governments, state government in the United States. “We want to create a platform to promote the Sino-US dialogue between governors of the two countries,” he said.
“Sub-national diplomacy.”
From Robert Griffiths’ point of view, they can understand what will be the next growth engine for the local governments through attending “two sessions”, besides, it is essential in order to grasp how different provinces and cities will implement and enforce the economic restructuring as formulated by the central government.
Will they get expected results by just attending the opening ceremony of two sessions? Chris Wurzel thinks the answer is yes. What makes him somewhat regrettable is he didn’t have much time to exchange business cards with local officials.
“We can learn about how China is self-governed,” Rob- ert Griffiths told reporters. As a part of their routine work, they will submit information obtained during the two sessions to the Embassy and Washington. As for those who are very important, they will try to establish contacts via private meeting or communications.
Robert Griffiths stress, whether it is “sub-national dialogue” (Forum on China-US provincial governors) or the Consulate participation in local “two sessions”, they all aim to get a better understanding of China’s grand strategy.
“The ‘sub-national dialogue’ forum launched by the former United States Ambassador Jon Huntsman is a very visionary move, on the state-province level exchanges, there are many interesting topics, emphasizing more on trade and economic interaction.” Robert Griffiths said, citing the example of a unique opportunity to promote diplomatic and business collaboration between the US states and Zhejiang province.
Although detailed data is not available yet to prove the effectiveness of regional dialogue between the two countries, but Robert Griffiths said, “This is a new diplomatic strategy.”