Then Deputy Mayor Josh Gilligan and Changzhou Vice Mayor Pan Dongling.
In short:
Wyndham has released the full report on its 7–12 September councillor delegation to Changzhou and Shanghai, detailing industry tours, government meetings and cultural visits. The trip strengthened the 2019 Friendly City relationship and set up future links in education, sport and technology for Melbourne’s west.
Business, Cultural and Educational Exchanges
Wyndham City has released the full summary of its councillor delegation to China, detailing a five-day program undertaken from 7–12 September this year.
The delegation consisted of then Deputy Mayor Josh Gilligan, Cr Preet Singh and Cr Larry Zhao, who represented the city across Changzhou and Shanghai.
A central focus of the visit was Wyndham’s Friendly City relationship with Changzhou, an agreement formalised in 2019 and maintained through ongoing educational, cultural and business exchanges.
The program was hosted by Deputy Director of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Changzhou Municipal Government, Mr Shen Lian, and Officer of the Foreign Affairs Office, Ms Tracey Zhang.
The delegation toured major enterprises in Changzhou, beginning with Hehe Yuanyuan, a popular bakery and dessert chain, before visiting Lihua Stock Raising and Manufacturing, a publicly listed agribusiness employing more than 7,000 people and generating nearly $4 billion in annual revenue.
A business meeting was also held with Starcharge, a global EV charging and microgrid company expanding into Australia.
Innovation and research featured prominently, with councillors touring the Changzhou Science and Education Town — a five-square-kilometre innovation precinct housing more than 16,500 tech professionals, over 1,000 R&D institutions and nearly 3,000 high-tech enterprises.
They also visited Changzhou University, a 20,000-student institution ranked inside the world’s top 600.
Cr Larry Zhao, Cr Preet Singh, then Deputy Mayor Josh Gilligan, Vice Mayor of Changzhou Pan Dongling, eputy Secretary-general of Changzhou Yao Cheng, Director of Foreign Affairs Office of Changzhou Zhang Yu and Deputy Director of Foreign Affairs Office of Changzhou Shen Lian.
EVs, Table Tennis and Soft Diplomacy
One of the headline industrial visits was to the BYD Changzhou EV manufacturing plant, a $2.34 billion facility capable of producing up to 400,000 electric vehicles annually, including the Yuan Plus/Atto 3 exported to Australia.
The Friendly City partnership was formally reaffirmed during a meeting with Changzhou Vice Mayor Pan Dongling, where a speech was delivered and gifts exchanged. Cultural visits included Tianning Temple, Qingguo Lane, the Friendship Garden and the Memorial Rock, which commemorates the relationship between Wyndham and Changzhou.
In Shanghai, the delegation focused on education and sport. They visited the Shanghai Foreign Language School, the sister school of Wyndham’s Suzanne Cory High School, to strengthen exchange pathways.
The trip concluded with a formal meeting with the Shanghai Table Tennis Association, whose representatives expressed interest in bringing a future event to Wyndham and included senior figures from the broader table tennis community.
The report states that the September visit strengthened Wyndham’s Friendly City ties with Changzhou, broadened education and cultural links, and opened new avenues for potential industry collaboration.
The report’s release also follows ongoing public scrutiny, with some residents questioning the value of councillors travelling overseas and earlier concerns reported by Wyndham TV involving Cr Larry Zhao denying he sent a council-branded invitation to Chinese officials.
