Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti expressed his gratitude Thursday to the Chinese cities of Shanghai and Guangzhou for helping the second largest city of the United States fight COVID-19.

Los Angeles is expecting a shipment of personal protective equipment from the two cities in China, Garcetti said in his daily briefing on the city’s novel coronavirus response efforts.

“I want to thank Shanghai and our sister city Guangzhou, who are sending medical masks and widely needed personal protective equipment for our front line doctors and nurses and medical teams,” Garcetti said. “This is the power of partnerships … This is how we tap into our relationships in order to protect our people.”

Los Angeles in 1981 established a sister-city relationship with Guangzhou, the capital and most populous city of south China’s Guangdong Province.

Garcetti also said that global cooperation is an important way to cope with the pandemic.

“The outpouring of global cooperation speaks to something we’ve highlighted in recent days, in our own communities and lives, that even as we keep physical distance, we need to create our spiritual social connections,” the mayor said, noting that the challenge crosses borders and so does their friendship.

Garcetti reiterated the city’s zero-tolerance policy against the racism triggered by COVID-19.

“Even as we distance ourselves, let us not abandon our values,” he said, citing the xenophobia seen on college campuses, against Asian-American owned businesses or in immigrant neighborhoods as examples.

“We can never lose sight of who we are and the fellow human beings that are in need of connection, support and strength. People are bound by a common commitment to slow the spread of the virus to save our economy and to rebuild a stronger city and world,” the mayor added.

“That is the spirit that we bring to this work, that is the determination and gift that I hold on to and that you hold on to every single day,” Garcetti said.

Los Angeles and its neighboring cities in southern California have some of the largest Chinese communities in the United States. As of 2010, about 400,000 Chinese Americans lived in Los Angeles County, about 4 percent of the county’s population.

In San Gabriel Valley, an area about 20 km east of downtown Los Angeles, eight of the 10 cities in the United States with the largest proportion of Chinese Americans are located there.

Moreover, as a gateway to China-U.S. international trade, Los Angeles has an important relationship with China in the fields of business, culture, education, and environment, among others. In addition, Chinese investment and tourism in Los Angeles are major drivers of local economic growth.

When China was struggling with the COVID-19 outbreak, Los Angeles County officials and local community leaders expressed their solidarity with China in fighting against the disease.