For about 20 years, Skellefteå municipality has had a friendship cooperation with Tongling, China. Initially, the mining industry was the main focus of the collaboration and then developed into an exchange where students from Tongling and Skellefteå could meet.

A model that Andreas Löwenhöök (M), opposition council, wants to place in the past.

- It is an old model and if you look at Skellefteå municipality and the inhabitants' bill, the benefit of the exchange has been minimal.

China's play as the basis for the proposal

With the recent release from China, the Social Democrats are proposing for the first time a proposal to suspend cooperation.

- China attacks Swedish media and our culture and father with untruth. That is why it feels impossible to collaborate and we see nothing but ending it, says Annamaria Hedlund (S).

Welcome proposal

Andreas Vesterberg was formerly the group leader of the Liberals in Skellefteå and ran this particular issue. He is positive that the Social Democrats are now presenting the proposal.

- I have driven the issue on several occasions so based on that commitment I am personally very happy that you finally realize that you cannot cooperate with a dictatorship.

Andreas Löwenhöök (M) also thinks that the proposal is in place, based on, among other things, China's reaction to the Swedish PEN's Tucholsky Prize.

- In the way China has acted against Sweden on the basis of the embassy's statements and so on, it is no more than in its place that the cooperation ends.