习主席曼彻斯特之行 开拓中英合作新机遇 Visit enhances relations with major UK city

Trip to Manchester laboratory provided new opportunities benefiting both sides

习近平主席参观曼彻斯特大学实验室之行为中英双方带来了合作的新机遇。

 

A president, a prime minister and a top soccer player: the selfie of President Xi Jinping, then-British prime minister David Cameron and Manchester City striker Sergio Aguero became an instant internet hit in 2015, when Xi ended a state visit to the United Kingdom in Manchester.

2015年，一张习近平主席与曼城球星阿奎罗和英国时任首相卡梅伦的手机自拍照红遍了互联网。当时，习主席即将结束访英的最后一站——曼彻斯特。

 

"That was really an iconic photo from the visit, which really showed the human and personal side of President Xi Jinping as well as being a strong global leader, also him as a human being enjoying a visit and meeting a footballer," said David Houliston, policy head of the Manchester City Council, who was involved in Xi's visit to Manchester as policy and partnership manager for the city.

“这确实是那次访问的标志性照片，显示了习近平主席人文和个性的一面，他即是伟大的全球领袖，也有享受与足球运动员会面的亲民一面。”作为曼彻斯特市议会战略政策和伙伴关系负责人的大卫•霍利斯顿曾参与习近平访问曼城之行。

 

Although Xi is known for his keen interest in soccer, that visit to Manchester far transcended the game.

尽管习近平主席以其对足球的浓厚兴趣而闻名，但访问曼彻斯特的意义远超足球运动本身。

 

In Manchester, bees, a city emblem, are everywhere to be seen.The hardworking insect evokes the city's history as the cradle of the Industrial Revolution, when it was chimneys, smoke and crowds of workers that were everywhere to be seen.

在曼彻斯特，蜜蜂是这座城市的标志，到处可见。勤奋的昆虫唤起人们对这座城市的历史记忆。曼彻斯特是工业革命的摇篮，曾几何时，这里处处都是烟囱、烟雾和工人。

 

In recent decades the city became home to the world's first modern computer, and then graphene, hailed as a wonder material, appeared and Manchester became a center of the Cameron government's "Northern Powerhouse" initiative and of the current government's "Levelling Up" initiatives.

而近几十年来，世界上第一款现代计算机在这里诞生，被称为奇迹材料的石墨烯也在这里研发。曼彻斯特成为卡梅伦政府“北方增长引擎”计划以及当前政府“提质升级”的中心。

 

Xi's first stop was the National Graphene Institute at Manchester University, the brain of the city's modern scientific and technological revolution.

习近平主席的第一站就是曼彻斯特大学国家石墨烯研究院，该院被认为是曼城现代科学和技术革命的大脑。

 

The institute researches graphene, the world's thinnest material.It is used mainly in the fields of energy and electronics and is now the focus of research looking for ways to reduce carbon emissions.

石墨烯研究院的研究对象是世界上最薄的材料，它主要用于能源和电子产品领域，是减少碳排放的重点研究对象。

 

There, President Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, were given a tour around the laboratories led by Professor Konstantin Novoselov, one of two scientists who won the Nobel Prize in physics in 2010 for their work on graphene at the University of Manchester.Novoselov was also trained in Chinese traditional painting.

习近平主席和夫人彭丽媛在康斯坦丁•诺沃肖洛夫教授的陪同下参观了实验室。诺沃肖洛夫和另一位科学家因在石墨烯材料方面的卓越研究而获得2010年诺贝尔物理学奖。

 

“Everyone was trying to ask and answer questions, making jokes, and the students were involved," Novoselov said.”

诺沃肖洛夫说：“学生也参与其中，每个人都想提问或回答问题，甚至开开玩笑。”

 

"It was quite a dynamic atmosphere, I would say.I gave President Xi one of my paintings.He was very surprised and gave me a set of marvelous paint brushes back as a present."

诺沃肖洛夫教授还接受过中国传统绘画的培训，“我要说的是，现场气氛很活泼。我赠送给习主席一幅画作，他感到非常惊讶，并送给我一套很棒的画笔作为回礼。”

 

He recalled the special gift he prepared for Xi, a traditional Chinese ink painting of a lotus pond.In fact, graphene ink was used in that painting.

他记得为习主席准备的特别礼物是一幅传统荷塘水墨画。实际上，这幅画就使用了石墨烯墨水。

 

Nowadays, university staff members refer to the passage that Xi walked through to see the signature cleanroom laboratory as the "famous corridor" because it later attracted the personnel of so many Chinese scientific institutes.A photo of Xi at the institute hangs on the wall of the corridor.

如今，曼大工作人员将习近平主席走过的通往生产石墨烯的地下超净实验室的通道视为“著名的走廊”，因为它后来吸引了许多中国科学研究人员。习主席参观实验室的照片就挂在走廊墙上。

 

"Xi Jinping's visit to the National Graphene Institute really created another wave of enthusiasm and interest in 2D materials in China," Novoselov said."More researchers started to work on it, and more interesting work started to appear.And China today is very strong in this area."

“习主席参观石墨烯研究院确实在中国产生了新的一波2D材料研究热。”诺沃肖洛夫说，“越来越多的研究人员开始从事该专业，更多有意思的工作开始出现。今天的中国在这方面的研究实力非常强大。”

 

Professor Luke Georghiou, deputy president and vice-chancellor of the university, also vividly recalled Xi's visit.

曼大副校长卢克•乔治乌教授也生动地回忆了习近平主席的访问。

 

"He was knowledgeable.He was interested in what we were doing.I think he has a background himself in technology.So he understood very well what he was seeing."

“他知识渊博，对我们正在做的事情很感兴趣。我认为他具有技术背景。因此，他相当了解自己看到的。”

 

Following the visit, the university's collaboration with Chinese institutes increased, said Georghiou, adding that global concerns such as health, environmental protection and sustainability have become a new focus of cooperation.

乔治乌教授说，习主席参观后，曼大与中国研究所的合作增加了，诸如健康、环境保护和可持续性发展等全球关注领域已成为合作的新焦点。

 

"It's important that the world leaders don't think the UK is only about London," he said."So it was important for us."

“重要的是，世界级的领导人不认为英国只有伦敦。” 他说。“这对我们很重要。”

 

On Xi's visit to the UK, Manchester was the only city apart from London that he went to, one reason being the city's post-industrial history, Georghiou said.

乔治乌教授说，在习主席访问英国时，曼彻斯特是继伦敦之后唯一的到访城市，该市的后工业发展史可能是原因之一。

 

"We have managed to grow from older declining industries and found a new economic basis for the way we work with a very dynamic and regional approach. I believe there is some interest in China because you also have many industrial cities."

“我们采用了非常有活力的区域治理方法，成功地从衰落的老工业中成长起来，建立了新的经济基础。我相信人们会因此感兴趣，因为中国也有许多老工业城市。”

 

One example is Manchester's sister city relationship since 1986 with Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province.That city similarly transformed itself from an industrial powerhouse into a modern scientific and technological innovation center.

湖北省省会武汉市是曼彻斯特自1986年以来的友好城市。同样，武汉成功地将自己从传统工业大市转变为现代科学和技术创新中心。

 

The two cities, having worked on trade, investment and education for decades, have found new common ground: hydrogen and sponge cities.

两座城市在贸易、投资和教育等领域合作了数十年，现在又找到了新的共同点：氢能源和海绵城市建设。

 

"We've learned from the Wuhan sponge cities program about how to use nature-based solutions to hold back floodwater," said Houliston, who has led Manchester's partnership with Wuhan for about seven years.”In Wuhan, that's about stopping flooding on the Yangtze River.In Manchester, we've done demonstrations learning from China's technology and investment."

负责曼城同武汉交往已经7年的霍利斯顿说：“我们从武汉海绵城市项目中学到了如何使用自然的解决方案来阻止洪水。”

“在曼彻斯特，我们做了向中国学习技术和投资的示范展示。”

 

In late April, the two cities signed a memorandum of understanding on hydrogen energy industry exchanges and collaboration, through which they will work together on the clean energy, with water as the only byproduct, for their net-zero targets.

4月下旬，两座城市签署了一份关于氢能交流和协作的谅解备忘录。双方将在清洁能源上共同努力，以水为唯一的副产品进行研究，实现净零排放目标。

 

Xi's visit triggered city partnerships between the two countries, Houliston said.

霍利斯顿说，习主席的访问推动了两国城市的伙伴关系。

 

"We saw a real succession of visits from governors and vice-governors of different regions of China coming to visit Manchester to see what the president had seen himself."

“在习主席访问之后，有很多的省市领导访问了曼彻斯特。”

 

In Manchester, many people on the city council, in universities and at companies have business cards that are in English and Chinese.Simple etiquette is one rationale for this, he said, but it also demonstrates the city's ties with China.

曼彻斯特议会、大学和公司的许多人都有中英文双语名片。霍利斯顿说，这是简单的礼节，但也证明了这座城市与中国的联系。

 

"We do that for all senior level people in our council, the mayor and the representatives."

“我们市议会高级官员，市长和议员都准备了双语名片。”

 

At a welcoming banquet held by the municipal government of Manchester in 2015, Xi said he hoped Manchester would act as a pacesetter of China-UK relations, highlighting the city's links with China.

2015年，习近平主席在曼彻斯特市政府举行的欢迎宴会上说，希望曼彻斯特积极担当中英关系的“领跑者”和中英合作的“领航员”，相信中国同曼彻斯特的交流合作必将迎来更加美好的明天。

 

Over the past seven years, China-UK relations have had ups and downs, but the relationship between Manchester and Wuhan seems to be undisturbed.

在过去的七年中，中英关系有起有伏，但曼彻斯特和武汉之间的关系似乎并没有受到干扰。

 

"We've seen historically that there can be challenges around some of the international relationships," Houliston said."And we've always felt that city-to-city dialogues and people-to-people dialogues can kind of shelter from those things a little bit.”

霍利斯顿说：“回顾历史，我们看到一些国际关系可能面临挑战。但是，我们一直认为，城市与城市的对话和人与人之间的对话可以避开这些干扰。”

 

"Even in the most difficult diplomatic era between the UK and China, we continued our work with Wuhan, and we're very proud that the city relations continued."

“即使在中英外交最困难的年代，我们仍与武汉开展合作，我们为友好城市关系继续而感到自豪。”

 

The Airport City Manchester project, one of the UK's largest joint venture commercial development projects worth one billion pounds, was also on Xi's itinerary.China's Beijing Construction Engineering Group International (BCEGI) is a joint venture and construction partner of the project.

曼彻斯特空港城是英国最大的合资商业开发项目之一，总价值约十亿英镑，北京建工集团是该项目的合资股东和建筑合作伙伴。

 

With the Airport City project as a starting point, BCEGI has taken part in five major construction projects in the UK as a developer or contractor in Manchester and beyond, with a gross development value of about£3 billion.The latest completed phases of the Middlewood Locks project have provided about 6,000 jobs in the local community.

以空港项目为起点，北京建工作为曼彻斯特及其他地区的开发商或承包商，参与了英国的五个重大建设项目，总开发价值约为30亿英镑。米德尔伍德洛克项目（Middlewood Locks）的建成为当地社区提供了约6,000个工作岗位。

 

"Chinese enterprises have generated a great deal of interest and investment for Manchester and the wider region following President Xi's visit," said Yu Dongwen, the director of BCEGI."It really brings confidence to Chinese companies with ambition on their global reach."

“在习近平主席访问后，中国企业对曼彻斯特和更广泛的地区产生了极大的兴趣和投资。” 北京建工集团英国公司总监于东温说，“这确实给有雄心在全球发展的中国公司带来了信心。”

 

Charlie Cornish, chief executive officer of Manchester Airport, said its relationship with the Chinese company is "very positive".

曼彻斯特机场首席执行官查理•康尼什表示，与中国公司的关系“非常积极”。

 

"You're always concerned about the commitment of the other party or parties, the openness of the other party or parties. But we've found them to be open, transparent, (and) friendly. If they said they would deliver a project for a particular time, they did it."

“你总会担心合作另一方的承诺、另一方的开放度。但是我们发现对方是开放的、透明的（且）友好的。如果他们说会在某个时间内交付一个项目，那就能做到。”

 

Rhys Whalley, executive director of the Manchester-China Forum, who calls himself an eternal optimist in terms of Manchester's relationship with China, said he believes in a promising future for bilateral ties."One has to be," he said.

曼彻斯特英中协会执行总监申瑞(Rhys Whalley)自称为曼彻斯特与中国关系永远的乐观主义者，他说他相信双方关系前景广阔。他说：“那是必须的！”

 

"I'm a proponent of the role the city and regions have to play in driving forward engagement.For too long that had been overlooked, particularly by national and multinational organizations.Cities and regions have a really important role to play, because ultimately that's where people come together."

“我支持城市和地区在推动互相交往方面发挥的作用。长期以来，特别是国家和多边组织忽视了这一点。城市和地区交往扮演着非常重要的角色，因为这是人们最终聚集在一起的地方。”

 

英文来源：中国日报

记者 李雪晴

（编译：齐磊 编辑：刘世东）