To mark the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Switzerland, the Sino-Swiss Dialogue on Cooperation at Local Level, co-hosted by the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC) and the Swiss Chinese Association, and organized by the Shanghai People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries and the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, was successfully held in Shanghai on August 28, 2025. Yang Wanming, President of the CPAFFC; Chen Jing, President of the Shanghai People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries; Thomas Wagner, Honorary President of the Swiss Chinese Association; Andries Diener, President of the Swiss Chinese Association; and Sacha Bachmann, Consul General of Switzerland in Shanghai, attended the event and delivered remarks.

In his remarks, President Yang noted that Switzerland is among the first countries to incorporate sustainable development into its national strategy; China has also made green development the defining feature of its high-quality growth. President Xi Jinping emphasizes that "new quality productive forces are by nature green productive forces." China and Switzerland share a high degree of alignment in their concepts of green development and enjoy complementary strengths in technological innovation and ecological governance. In particular, subnational cooperation has become a vital platform for the two countries' joint pursuit of sustainable development.

President Yang stressed that the CPAFFC has long been committed to building bridges for subnational cooperation and people-to-people exchanges between China and other countries. He expressed the CPAFFC's readiness to further deepen Sino-Swiss cooperation on sustainable development at the subnational level and turn the outcomes into lasting momentum for bilateral relations. The first is to guide actions with vision, jointly pursuing the green development vision and exploring a new form of civilization featuring harmony between humanity and nature. The second is to ensure continuity with mechanisms, building multi-level cooperation networks and broadening participation, so that sustainable development cooperation can become fertile ground nourishing subnational exchanges. The third is to sustain cooperation with culture, fostering a culture of sustainable development that extends beyond policy documents into people's daily lives, thereby laying a solid social foundation for Sino-Swiss friendship through civilizational dialogue.

Chen Jing observed that over the past 75 years since the establishment of diplomatic ties, Shanghai and Switzerland have forged profound bonds through subnational cooperation. As a global pioneer in sustainable development, Switzerland has accumulated extensive experience in green transition. Looking into the future, deeper collaboration in sustainable development will inject strong momentum into Sino-Swiss subnational exchanges. He expressed the hope that such cooperation would become more substantive, with closer business linkages, opening new chapters of win-win cooperation and strengthened friendship between the two peoples.

The Swiss side emphasized that China plays an important role in today's world, contributing greater stability to global development. In an era of profound change and challenges, people-to-people and subnational exchanges have become all the more important. Since the beginning of this year, multiple exchanges in culture, the arts, and youth engagement have been held between Switzerland and China, with particularly close friendship city cooperation between Basel and Shanghai. The Swiss side expressed willingness to work with China to further deepen friendship between the peoples, enhance mutual understanding, and jointly contribute to world peace and development.

The dialogue, focusing on "cooperation in sustainable development", explored topics such as green energy transition, artificial intelligence empowerment, and smart city governance. Featuring policy briefings, corporate case studies, and academic presentations, the dialogue fostered mutual learning between China and Switzerland at the subnational level in sustainable development and expanded prospects for future cooperation. More than 60 representatives and experts from government departments, universities, and enterprises in Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang, as well as the Consulate General of Switzerland in Shanghai, the Swissnex China, the SwissCham China, and other institutions, attended the event.