| International friendship city relations are a friendly exchange relationship at the local level established by signing formal agreements between cities in different countries,based on common feelings and pursuit of interests,with the goal of promoting communication and economic exchanges between the two parties.Since the establishment of the world’s first friendship city relationship between Poix,France and Yorkshire,England after the First World War.The development of international friendship city relations has made great achievements and has become an important factor for cities in various countries to maintain world peace,carry out international exchanges,and promote economic and trade development.In 1973,Tianjin and Kobe established the first pair of friendship city in China.After half a century of development,international friendship city relations have also made remarkable achievements in China.It has established nearly 2,700 pairs of international friendship city relations with 138 countries,forming a deep,wide-ranging and high-quality international "friend circle" all over the world,and making great contributions to China’s opening-up and economic-trade development.The leaders of the Communist Party and the central government in China have attached great importance to the development of China’s international friendship city relations.On different occasions,they have emphasized the important role of the development of international friendship city relations at the local level in China’s opening to the outside world and economic-trade development.In May 2014,General Secretary Xi Jinping clearly pointed out at the China International Friendship Cities Conference and the 60 th anniversary of the establishment of Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries: “We must vigorously carry out the work of international friendship city relations,promote exchanges and cooperation between Chinese and foreign local governments,and realize resource sharing,complementary advantages and win-win cooperation between the two cities and even two countries.” At the 2018 Central Foreign Affairs Work Conference,General Secretary Xi Jinping re-emphasized: “Local foreign affairs work is an important part of the Party and the country’s diplomatic work,and is of great significance to promoting local reform,economic development,international exchanges and cooperation.We should give full play to the enthusiasm of the local level when building a major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics in the new era.” This shows that the construction of China’s international friendship city relations have risen to the national strategic level,and it will play a very important role in the opening-up and economic-trade development in the future.Whether international friendship city relations can bring positive influence and promotion to the development of China’s local economic-trade is the focus of this research.For a long time,the research on economic-trade effects based on foreign bilateral relations has mostly focused on the national level,while the research based on the economic-trade effects of foreign exchanges at the local level is not enough.And in the existing literature,the research and discussion on the economic-trade effects of local foreign exchanges are not very in-depth,and the role and impact mechanism are not clear,which needs to be improved and enriched.In this regard,this paper takes the international friendship city relations established at the local city level as the research object,and discusses its role in the process of exporting.This study can provide suggestions for improving the level of urban opening and economic-trade development,and promoting the optimization of China’s opening-up pattern and the high-quality development of trade.This research is divided into eight chapters.The first chapter is the introduction of the research,which mainly introduces the research background,research significance,ideas,framework,innovation and so on.The second chapter is the literature review part,which organizes and summarizes the research related to this article,including the relevant literature on the development of international friendship city relations,and the related research on the economic-trade development of international friendship city relations.The third chapter is the theoretical analysis part of this research,which mainly summarizes the theoretical basis of the development of international friendship city relations,the mechanism of international friendship city relations on city export,the theoretical analysis of international friendship city relations on enterprise export,and the response of international friendship city relations to the impact of uncertain risks theoretical mechanism.Chapters 4 to 7 are the core content of this study.In the fourth chapter,the development process of China’s international friendship city relations is summarized,including the origin and type,development stage,role in China’s economic-trade development,existing problems,and future directions.In the fifth chapter,it discusses the spatial characteristics of international friendship city relations and urban export,discusses the spatial impact of international friendship city relations on China’s urban export from the perspective of spatial spillover,and analyzes the scope of this spatial spillover effect and overflow boundaries.In the sixth chapter,it mainly discusses the influence of the establishment of international friendship city relations and the growth of the number of international friendship city relations on the export of local enterprises from a micro perspective,and analyzes it’s mechanism on the export of enterprises.In the seventh chapter,it discusses the risk buffering and trade stabilization effects of international friendship city relations on urban exports under the impact of external uncertain risks,and provides theoretical and empirical evidence for dealing with the negative impact of external uncertain risks on China’s export.The eighth part is the summary of the full text,policy recommendations,deficiencies and future prospects.Through the in-depth analysis,solid demonstration and full discussion of the problem,the research conclusions obtained in this paper mainly include the following aspects:Firstly,from the perspective of the development of China’s international friendship city relations:(1)China’s international friendship city relations have different types and stages of development,and have different characteristics of the times and evolution in different stages.International friendship city relations have grown from nothing,from coastal and provincial capital cities to inland and border cities,and the partners have shifted from developed countries to developing countries and then to countries along the “Belt and Road”.From point to line and to network,it has built a high-quality international “friend circle” covering all continents in the world.(2)International friendship city relations have mainly played two roles of“bringing in” and “going out” in the process of China’s economic-trade development.In the early stage,it mainly played the role of “bringing in”: introducing international capital and foreign investment through friendship city relations,attracting multinational enterprises and international personnel to enter China,and using international resources to help China achieve leapfrog development.After the 21 st century,it will focus on the role of “going out”,helping China’s capital and enterprises to participate in international operations and competition overseas,promoting China’s culture to go abroad,and leading the development of export through cultural dissemination.In addition,it also summarizes the current shortcomings of China’s international friendship city relations and the future development direction.Secondly,from the perspective of the spatial impact and spillover effect of international friendship city relations on urban export:(1)China’s international friendship cities and urban export have significant spatial aggregation characteristics,mainly concentrated in the eastern coast,provincial capital cities and some in border areas,and the spatial distribution is uneven.International friendship city relations have a significant spatial spillover effect on the export of China’s cities.The increase in the number of international friendship city relations can not only directly drive the growth of local export,but also indirectly promotes the synchronous growth of export of the surrounding cities.(2)International friendship city relations are to promote the growth of local export by accumulating international social capital,attracting foreign investment and international personnel exchanges,and establishing stable international connection.At the same time,through the spatial overflow of international personnel between cities,it strengthens the connection with other cities and drives the growth of export in the surrounding cities.Compared with eastern regions and northern cities,international friendship city relations can produce stronger trade promotion effects in central-western regions and southern cities.(3)The influence of international friendship city relations on urban export has spillover interval and siphon interval in space.There is a positive spatial spillover within 700 kilometers,and the spillover effect on urban export can spread to neighboring provinces.However,at a distance out of 800 kilometers,there is a significant negative siphonic effect,indicating that from a cross-provincial and larger scale,international friendship city relations have promoted the concentration of economic-trade resources in a few areas.The spillover effect and the siphonic effect coexist,and it is necessary to correctly understand the difference in the role of international friendship city relations on urban export from a spatial perspective.Thirdly,from the perspective of the impact and role of international friendship city relations on the export of enterprises:(1)Having an friendship city relation can promote an average increase of 3.1% in the export of enterprises to the country where the friendship city is located.And each additional pair of international friendship city relation between a city and a country can promote enterprises’ export growth of about4.4%.The increase in the number of international friendship city relations can release continuous policy dividends and promote the long-term development of export of enterprises.(2)The establishment of international friendship city relations and the increase in the number of friendship cities has a stronger export promotion effect on Sino-foreign joint ventures and cooperative enterprises with both local and foreign advantages,as well as mature enterprises established for more than 10 years.It is more conducive to the growth of export of enterprises in eastern,northern and non-provincial capital cities.At the same time,the establishment of international friendship city relations with Latin American,African and high-income countries that are far away from each other is more beneficial to the growth of enterprises’ exports.In general,the trade effects of different friendship city combinations are in the order of weak-strong >strong-strong > weak-weak > strong-weak.It is more beneficial for the city to establish international friendship city relations with countries that have a higher level of economic development than its own,which is more conducive to the development of local enterprises’ export.(3)The establishment of international friendship city relations and the growth of the number of friendship cities impact on the growth of enterprises’ export through mechanisms such as enhancing the exchange of information,promoting the growth of bilateral investment,promoting the emotional recognition,and reducing the trade cost between the two places.And emotional recognition and trade cost mechanism have a stronger impact on the export of enterprises.(4)The increase in the number of international friendship city relations can promote the enterprise’s export through the growth of expansion margin,intensive margin and mixed margin.The increase in the number of international friendship city relations of provincial capital can drive the growth of the enterprises’ export in other non-capital cities,and the marginal cities can use the international resources of the provincial capital as a springboard to indirectly enter the international export market.Finally,from the perspective of international friendship city relations to deal with uncertain risks and reduce export losses:(1)International friendship city relations can significantly reduce the negative impact of external uncertainty risks on export,and play a role of risk buffer and trade stabilizers in urban export.The longer international friendship city relations are established,the more obvious the effect of resisting external risks.At the same time,international friendship city relations have a dynamic adjustment effect on uncertainty risks,which can effectively prevent and alleviate the negative impact of medium-long term external uncertainty risks on urban export.(2)International friendship city relations can help the central-western,northern and non-provincial capital cities with poor trade conditions to better mitigate the trade shock caused by uncertain risks.It can also better alleviate the negative impact of uncertain risks from Europe,the United States,Latin American,African,and middle-high income countries on China’s urban export.(3)There are three main mechanisms for the role of international friendship city relations as risk buffers and trade stabilizers: by stabilizing trade links,reducing the exit behavior of enterprises and products from the export market;easing trade frictions and reducing exports losses caused by trade frictions;enhance the people’s goodwill towards China,and enhance the sense of trust and identification with China,thus urging the two countries to work together to resist the crisis and alleviate trade risks.(4)International friendship city relations can alleviate the negative impact of uncertain risks arising from major international crisis events on China’s urban export.However,for certain surrounding countries,the international friendship city relations can only alleviate the negative impact of Japan’s uncertain risks on China’s urban export.According to the research results of this paper,the following opinions and suggestions are put forward through sufficient and rigorous demonstration and analysis:Firstly,from the perspective of the future development direction of China’s international friendship city relations,there are several suggestions as follows:Integrate the functions of foreign-related departments of local governments and set up a unified external leading agency;Strengthen substantive exchanges between international friendship cities,and improve the breadth and depth of cities’ external exchanges and cooperation;Optimize the structure of international friendship city relations,improve the construction of the international city network;Increase the construction of domestic friendship cities,relying on international friendship cities to open up dual-circulation channels of the city network.Secondly,from the perspective of the spatial impact of international friendship city relations on the export of cities,there are several suggestions as follows: We should pay attention to the importance of external exchanges at the city level,open up high-quality international and domestic dual-circulation channels through the construction of international friendship city relations;The construction of friendship cities will play a leading role and promote the high-quality development of urban export;In the construction of international friendship city relations,it is necessary to put people first,and strengthen personnel and cultural exchanges between the two cities;We need to rationally plan the spatial distribution of international friendship cities,avoiding the spatial imbalance of international sister cities and international social capital.Thirdly,from the perspective of the impact of international friendship city relations on the export of enterprises,there are several suggestions as follows: We should give full play to the core role of enterprises in the economic-trade exchanges of international friendship city relations,and use the economic-trade exchanges of enterprises to drive the cooperation of friendship cities;We should pay attention to the regional differentiation in the construction of international friendship city relations,and adopt differentiated policies to promote economic-trade exchanges between friendship cities according to the time and local conditions;We should open up the micro-mechanism of international friendship city relations impact on the economic-trade activities of enterprises,and build a long-term mechanism to promote the healthy development of export of enterprises.Finally,from the perspective of the role of international friendship city relations on cities’ export risk buffers and trade stabilizers,the following suggestions as follows:We should strengthen the construction of international friendship city relations,and give full play to the underlying role of cities in the process of preventing and resolving external uncertain risks;Pay full attention to the regional differences in export activities,and improve the pertinence of the construction of international friendship city relations;We should attach importance to the construction of international friendship city relations to neighboring countries,and stabilize the economic-trade situation with these countries. |
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