The 2026 Liaoning International Friendship Cities Conference, themed “Liaoning: Wisdom & Friendship — Forward Together”, opened in Shenyang on June 10. Addresses were given by Xu Kunlin, Party Secretary of CPC Liaoning Provincial Committee, and Jiang Jiang, former Vice President of the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC) and Vice President of China International Friendship Cities Association (CIFCA). Wang Xinwei, Governor of Liaoning Provincial People’s Government, delivered a briefing on the development of Liaoning Province. Zhou Bo, Chairman of the Liaoning Provincial Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), attended the event. Pan Yishan, Secretary of the CPC Committee of Liaoning University (LNU) and an Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, was invited to attend the opening ceremony and related side events.

On the afternoon of June 9, provincial leaders, including Xu Kunlin, Wang Xinwei, and Zhou Bo, met with distinguished guests and representatives attending the conference. Pan Yishan attended the meeting as an invited representative. During the meeting, officials from the Ministry of Education, diplomatic envoys to China, academicians from home and abroad, and presidents of overseas universities engaged in in-depth discussions on international friendship city development, educational connectivity, technological collaboration, and people-to-people exchanges. Also in attendance were the six Chinese and foreign academicians and experts invited to the sub-forum hosted by LNU.

As one of the key sub-forums of this year’s conference, the 2026 International Industry-University-Research-Application Cooperation Conference (Northeast China Region) — Symposium on Mine Geological Disaster Control and Ecological Environment Restoration was hosted by LNU. It invited six academicians from China and abroad to lead academic discussions on frontier areas such as prevention and control of mine geological disasters, ecological environment restoration, and integration of industry-university-research-application, thereby establishing a high-level international platform for academic exchange and research collaboration.

Hosting this high-level international academic symposium and participating in the Friendship Cities Conference highlight LNU’s proactive commitment to expanding high-level international exchanges and cooperation and deepening collaborative innovation of industry-university-research-application. It will take this opportunity, with its discipline and talent strengths, to advance the Double First-Class initiative and contribute to Liaoning’s high-level opening-up and comprehensive revitalization.

Translated by: Zeng Xi

Edited by: Gao Mengdi, Liu Hanlin

Proofread by: Li Zhibin

Reviewed by: Jin Jinghua