News and Events – 2020

COVID-19 in Baltimore and Maryland

Baltimore Sister Cities Food Drive for our hungry neighbors: Supporters helped food insecure members of our community by donating to the Maryland Food Bank.

BXSCC Remembers Longtime Treasurer Arella Liu with New Scholarship Program

In memory of long-time BXSCC Treasurer Arella Liu, who passed away in October 2020 after a brief battle with late-stage cancer, the BXSCC established a scholarship for Baltimore City youth with a strong interest in China. The scholarship was projected to help fund studies of Chinese language and culture, including potential travel with Sister Cities. Arella was the originator of the BXSCC’s Youth Ambassadors program and despite, per her preference, not being one of the “faces” of the program, was key in executing the program in the background. She also loved foreign travel and bringing the Chinese language and culture into the lives of the citizens of her adopted hometown of Baltimore.

More details about this scholarship program were to be announced via the BXSCC website.

14th Annual CHINA Town Hall

The 14th Annual CHINA Town Hall was hosted nationwide by the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations (NCUSCR) and in Baltimore by the Baltimore – Xiamen Sister City Committee.

In light of the growing downturn in U.S.-China relations over the past year, CHINA Town Hall had expanded from a single night into a multi-night series of programming to address the range of issues confronting the relationship. The series kicked off at 7:00PM on Tuesday, November 10th, starting with a keynote event with renowned investor Ray Dalio, followed by events on three subsequent evenings, each focused on a specific issue area: economics and trade, climate and health, and society and culture. In addition, a fifth Mandarin-language event was held for Chinese-speaking audiences in the United States, China, and around the world.

Due to public health concerns, Baltimore’s 2020 edition of this event was all-virtual. To allow a wider audience to participate, this year’s event was free to attend. Registration was conducted via Eventbrite.

China International Fair for Investment & Trade (CIFIT)

The China International Fair for Investment and Trade (CIFIT) occurs in September of every year in Xiamen, China. CIFIT aims to focus on international business investment, promotion, development, and relations both in and outside China. The fair has been held annually for more than 30 years in Xiamen, Fujian Province in southeast China and is the largest such event in the country, regularly attracting more than 100,000 business people and 5,000 enterprises from more than 100 countries.

Due to the COVID-19 situation at the time, CIFIT elevated their platform to be both online and in-person.

This year, BXSCC partnered with the Maryland Department of Commerce to have a virtual booth to advertise and promote multiple aspects of Maryland industry and business. The Baltimore-Xiamen Sister City Committee (BXSCC) was celebrating 35 years of sister city relations with Xiamen this year.

For more information on CIFIT, please visit https://www.chinafair.org.cn/CifitSystem/index/#/index.

Many of the MD Department of Commerce’s and BXSCC’s international activities went virtual this year, and Felicia Pullam (MD Department of Commerce) and Robin Su (BXSCC Business Sub-Committee Chair) were the contacts at their respective organizations for getting involved in future events.

BXSCC Announces New Secretary

BXSCC members elected Brian Jia through 2021. Brian also took over as Website & E-Communications Content Manager.

Asian Pacific American (APA) Heritage Month 2020

Pursuant to public health guidelines during the COVID-19 outbreak, the in-person 2020 celebration in partnership with Enoch Pratt Free Library was unfortunately cancelled. We planned to be back in 2021 – but in the meantime, we encouraged all members of the BXSCC community to visit virtual APA-themed displays from our community partners:

Towson University’s Asian Arts & Culture Center and partners created a virtual Asia North celebration: https://www.towson.edu/campus/artsculture/centers/asianarts/collection-resources/asia-north/
Baltimore Asian Pasifika Arts Collective’s Virtual Art Gallery: https://baltimoreapac.org/apahm-virtual-art-gallery

City of Xiamen Donates 50,000 Surgical Masks to Baltimore

On May 24th, a shipment of 50,000 surgical masks valued at nearly US$ 25,000 arrived at JFK Airport in New York for further transport to Baltimore. This was a gift from Baltimore’s sister city of Xiamen, China to the City of Baltimore to assist in the city’s COVID-19 response efforts. It followed an April letter of support from Xiamen Mayor Jiahan Zhuang to Baltimore Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young. The masks were to be kept at the Baltimore City Emergency Operations Center and distributed based on requests received from local health care institutions to meet critical shortages of this equipment.

More about this project can be found in the press releases linked to below:

From the Office of Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young: Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young Announces Donation of 50,000 Masks from Baltimore’s Sister City
From Baltimore Sister Cities, Inc.: S.O.S – Save Our Sister
From the Baltimore – Xiamen Sister City Committee: Baltimore’s Sister City in China Donates 50,000 Surgical Masks to Baltimore

Local Baltimore media reports:
In The Baltimore Sun

Other featurettes:
Baltimore Sister Cities, Inc. podcast
Sister Cities International post

Port Discovery’s Year of the Rat Lunar New Year Celebration Event

BXSCC members volunteered at Port Discovery Children’s Museum on Saturday, January 25th and Sunday the 26th to celebrate the Lunar New Year with personalized bookmarks, handicrafts, coloring pages, lessons on how to use chopsticks, and a photo booth.