VII. We coordinated our foreign relations, information and publicity, and self-improvement work to better serve the central task of economic development as well as the overall interests of the country.

We actively developed contacts with other countries. Focusing on China’s national development strategy and its overall interests in reform and opening up, we fully utilized the characteristics and advantages of the NPC’s foreign relations and fully advanced friendly exchanges and cooperation with the congresses and parliaments of other countries in order to serve the need of China’s overall diplomatic work.

First, we deepened the mechanism for regular exchanges. We successfully held the eighth meeting of the cooperation council consisting of the NPC and the Russian Federation Council, and established the new China-Russia Parliamentary Cooperation Committee consisting of the NPC, the Russian Federation Council, and the State Duma of Russia. We resumed regular exchanges with the Senate of the United States; advanced regular exchanges with the national parliaments and congresses of France, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Republic of Korea, Canada, Australia, and Chile as well as with the European Parliament; and established a mechanism for regular exchanges with the State Great Hural of Mongolia.

Second, we conducted friendly foreign exchanges on multiple levels and in various ways. We successfully organized the first official visits to Peru, Colombia, and Mexico by Chairperson of the NPC Standing Committee; received 53 congressional and parliamentary delegations from countries such as Switzerland, Nigeria, Myanmar, and Kyrgyzstan; increased exchange between NPC special committees and friendship groups on the one hand and their counterparts in the national parliaments and congresses of other countries on the other; played a constructive role in the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the Asian Parliamentary Assembly, and other parliamentary organizations; and appropriately arranged the overseas trips of the NPC Tibetan Delegation and the NPC Youth Representatives Friendship Delegation. Through these efforts, we made friends in many places, and advanced cooperation and furthered friendship with other countries. The Overseas Chinese Affairs Committee of the NPC properly carried out its work, serving the efforts to pool the support and wisdom of overseas Chinese.

Third, we made our foreign contacts more targeted. With a view to safeguarding the overall development of China’s foreign relations and serving its national development strategy, we strengthened exchanges concerning state governance experience with our foreign counterparts, provided a good legal and policy environment for deepening China’s pragmatic cooperation with other countries, and consolidated the social foundation and public support for the development of China’s relations with other countries.

Fourth, we shared both China’s story and the story of the NPC. We helped international audiences better understand and identify with China’s path of development, its basic national context, and its domestic and foreign policies.