Lord Mayor welcomes Chinese Ambassador to Cork in show of solidarity

Pictured above (L to R): Brian Geaney, Assistant Chief Executive, Cork City Council; Lord Mayor of Cork Cllr. John Sheehan; Chinese Ambassador to Ireland His Excellency Mr. He Xiangdong; Cllr. Derry Canty.

4th March 2020

The Chinese Ambassador to Ireland, He Xiangdong, visited Cork City Hall this morning for an event to demonstrate Irish solidarity with the Chinese people in the face of the coronavirus.

Ambassador He is a graduate of Wuhan University, the city where the coronavirus outbreak originated.

He was met by the Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr. John Sheehan, representatives from University College Cork, which has 600 Chinese students, and representatives from the Tyndall National Institute, Cork Chamber, the Irish-China Business association and six members from the Ireland Cork China Business Association.

Since the outbreak of the coronavirus in China, Cork City Council has issued letters of support to our municipal partners in China and a video message of support by the Lord Mayor was watched by millions on the Shanghai News Channel.

Cork City has been developing ties with China since 2002 and was the first Irish City to twin with a Chinese city.  Shanghai is a sister city of Cork and Hangzhou, Shenzhen and Wuxi are partner cities.   In 2005, Cork signed a Sister City Agreement with the Shanghai Municipal People’s Government. In 2011, it signed further Memoranda of Understanding with the Hangzhou Municipal People’s Government and the Wuxi Municipal People’s Government. In 2013, Cork concluded a Memorandum of Understanding with the Shenzhen Municipal People’s Government.

Cork City Council supports UCC’s Confucius Institute to offer student and teacher student exchanges between Cork and Chinese primary and second level schools to further cross cultural and social understanding amongst young people. Through the Cork City LEO, it also supports SMEs who want to develop Chinese markets.