On 19 June, Charge D’Affairs Cong Peiwu attended the inaugural ceremony of Manchester–China Forum in the British House of Parliament and read the congratulatory message from Ambassador Liu Xiaoming.

In his congratulatory message, Ambassador Liu pointed out that the establishment of the Manchester-China Forum will not only set up a new communication platform for promoting exchanges and cooperation between China and Manchester, but also provide a new form of expanding and deepening regional cooperation between China and the UK. He anticipates that the forum will be an important cooperation mechanism of China, Manchester and northwestern England. He also hopes that by further enhancing communications and coordination between governments, enterprises, educational and cultural institutions and increasing mutual public understandings as well as exploring cooperation in fields like trade, investment, education and tourism, the forum will achieve the win–win partnership of advantages of both sides and bring more fruitful cooperation results. He also hopes that the forum will generate a demonstrative effect for more such forums in British cities and regions, becoming a new chain brand of promoting China–UK relations and continuously improving the general level of cooperation between them.

Those who attended and spoke at the ceremony included, Mr. Greg Clark, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Mr. Charlie Cornish, Chairman of the Manchester China Forum and Chief Executive of Manchester Airport Group, Mr. Howard Bernstein, Chief Executive of Manchester City, and Senator Baron Nathanael Ming-Yan Wei. They said that China has made great achievements in development and that on the basis of complimentary advantages of China and the UK, prospective opportunities of cooperation between the two countries are very broad. The establishment of the Manchester-China Forum will strongly promote cooperation between China and Manchester and even the entire UK and achieve mutual benefit and win–win results.

The Manchester-China Forum was founded in Manchester on 26 April 2013, with an aim of increasing connections between China and Manchester in fields including business, education and culture, and providing assistance for the expansion of Manchester companies in China.