Mayor Greg Sparrow returned from his trip to Beijing, China, on April 22 after eight days of talks with Chinese mayors and vice-mayors about local government policies in the free world.

Three mayors from Peru, one from Mexico, two from the U.S. and four U.S. professors specializing in public transportation attended the “International Mayors Symposium,” Sparrow said. The symposium was sponsored by the United Nations Development Program. It was initiated by about 20 large-city Chinese mayors and approved by the government.

The communist government approved the symposium, knowing the mayors and professors were going to be very “frank and direct” in their speeches, Sparrow said.

“We were not going to sugarcoat what we were going to say,” he said.

The first two days of the symposium consisted of lectures by the free-world and Chinese mayors. The third day provided for intense one-on-one workshops between both groups on new ways to run local government, similar to democratic methods.

All lectures and workshops were conducted with the help of interpreters. Many of the interpreters were some of the same Beijing University students that are protesting for more democratic reform, he said.

During the last day of the symposium workshops, a Chinese speaker labeled China as a “socialist commodity economy,” Sparrow said.

“That sounds like capitalism to me,” he said. Although the Chinese are heading toward more democratic ways of governing, they will not openly call their country “capitalist,” he said.

The free-world mayors felt the symposium was “a very historic event for the People’s Republic of China” because the Chinese are showing the need for changes in their local governments, Sparrow said.

“There was a sense of excitement, enthusiasm and hopefulness of the Chinese to solve their problems,” he said.

It is backwards for the Chinese government to have absolute authority over the local government, Sparrow said. This is because the Chinese mayors understand the local problems of the homeless, taxes and transportation better than the national government does, he said.

Sparrow thinks the Chinese are moving in the right direction by having the symposium and learning about democratic ways of governing.

Many new ideas were spurred by the symposium, Sparrow said. The vice-mayor of Datong talked with Sparrow about the desire to establish a “friendship city” relationship with DeKalb. He said a “friendship city,” also known as a “sister city” in the U.S., is the connection of two cities from different countries to create international exchanges.

The Chinese mayors showed interest in creating their own Conference of Mayors, he said. They would be able to travel to the U.S. and view the meetings of this country’s Conference of Mayors, which was established 58 years ago.

Sparrow said he would like to help encourage the U.S. Conference of Mayors to lead a delegation back to China next year.

The most interesting aspect of his trip was to meet the people and be subject to their country’s systems of tradition and culture. It was an opportunity to see how the Chinese people live, he said.

“They have their hopes and their dreams,” he said. Their goal may be to buy a television, whereas we look forward to buying a house, he added.

“It’s a very humbling experience” to see the Chinese people work so hard for everything to be owned by the government and receive a monthly stipend of about $50, Sparrow said.

“I was recharged with the idea that we have the opportunity, ability and tools to make this country what we want it to be,” he said.

Sparrow is not entirely certain how he was chosen to attend the symposium, but he presumes his active involvement in the Conference of Mayors was a major factor.

e was the chairman of the standing committee for public transportation and is presently a member of the advisory board.

“Certainly it’s an honor for me to be asked to go,” he said.

Sparrow accepted the invitation to show the Conference of Mayors a willingness to go and get a better understanding of the international students at NIU by seeing their country first hand.