THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, March 10, 1995 TAG: 9503080213
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY REBECCA A. MYERS, VIRGINIAN-PILOT/LEDGER-STAR
LENGTH: Medium: 100 lines
Portsmouth soon hopes to add a fourth sibling to its international family.
In a City Council resolution, Changzhou, China, was endorsed as Portsmouth's newest sister city.
``China right now is opening its doors to develop relationships with other countries as well as the cities of other countries,'' said Bill Ma, manager of China Market USA, the business that proposed the idea.
``Therefore in accordance with reforms currently going on in China, Changzhou (pronounced jan-jo) decided to open its doors even wider by establishing sister city relations with the United States.''
Though Ma has never been to Changzhou, he says it is a ``very beautiful city with a lot of waterways.'' It is located northwest of Shanghai in the Jiangsu province of East China on the Grand Canal. Its population is about 300,000.
On Tuesday, four visitors from Changzhou will arrive in Portsmouth to tour the city. The group will visit industrial sites such as PortCentre, the Cox property in West Norfolk, as well as the Portsmouth Marine Terminal.
``At this point, we don't have an official relationship, but we're trying to begin to build that,'' said Gail Cunningham, chairwoman of Portsmouth's Sister City Commission.
To make it official, resolutions must be passed by both city councils and protocols must be signed by the mayors of both cities. Once the proper paperwork is received in Alexandria at Sister Cities International, which oversees more than 117 Sister City relationships, letters of recognition and charters are sent to both cities.
Because a city cannot have more than one sister city relationship in a particular country, occasionally requests for sister city recognition are denied.
``If this Chinese city were to already have a sister city in the United States before signing this agreement, we would not recognize it,'' said Richard Gerrard, affiliations director of Sister Cities International.
``Or vice versa. If Portsmouth were to have a sister city in China and be looking to sign a second one, we would not recognize that,'' Gerrard said in a telephone interview from Alexandria.
Portsmouth has sister city relationships with Dunedin, New Zealand; Portsmouth, England; and Eldoret, Kenya.
Changzhou has sister city ties with Italy and Japan.
The sister cities program was initiated by President Eisenhower in 1956 to bridge ties among the United States, Germany and Japan after World War II.
Sister city relationships are established for a variety of reasons, depending on what the cities have defined as their goals and objectives.
``Do you want to get pen pal programs started in grade schools? Do you want to do teacher and student exchanges? Do you want to do exchanges of art and culture? Do you want business and economic development?'' said Gerrard of Sister Cities International.
``Things must be agreed to. It's a partnership. We try to dissuade cities from becoming a one-way ticket in terms of exchange. We want there to be reciprocity in the process,'' he said.
When an earthquake devastated Mexico City in 1985, an outpouring of support came from sister city Los Angeles.
When Kobe, Japan, suffered a similar fate recently, sister city Seattle offered assistance.
When Des Moines, Iowa, was deluged by floods two years ago, exchange students from sister city Naucalpan, Mexico, volunteered to stack sandbags.
Portsmouth, too, has its own bittersweet example of cooperation between sister cities.
``We had a young man (Maury W. Cooke Jr.) who was biking in Dunedin (New Zealand) a couple of years ago and his brother was killed here in an automobile accident,'' said Cunningham of the Portsmouth Sister City Commission.
``Our contacts over there found him, got him. In fact, an Episcopal priest traveled with him'' part of the way back to Portsmouth.
For the most part, Portsmouth's sister city relationships have been on a brighter note:
A year ago last fall, the city manager of Dunedin, New Zealand, visited Portsmouth with his wife and children for a ``working'' vacation - to explore the area for economic development opportunities.
Later that year, a Dunedin city employee who deals in environmental issues visited Portsmouth to tour the city's regional refuse and sanitation system plants.
Each year, the Portsmouth Rotary Club and the Rotary Club in Portsmouth, England, take turns hosting a golf tournament.
The Constabulary Band from Portsmouth, England, will come to the Azalea Festival in April. Portsmouth families will provide housing for about 50 visitors.
In less than two years, the Virginia Children's Chorus will visit Portsmouth, England, where they hope to find a children's choir with whom they can sing.
``At this point, we are much more successful with Dunedin, New Zealand, and Portsmouth, England, than we are with Eldoret, Kenya, because there have been some cultural and political things that have impeded our ability to even communicate directly,'' said Cunningham.
``Part of it is political. The political situation in Kenya hasn't been terribly conducive to open relationships lately, so we're struggling with ways to keep it going,'' she said.
KEYWORDS: SISTER CITY by CNB