Enhance China's Cultural Soft Power

Enhance China's Cultural Soft Power* 

December 30, 2013 

The strengthening of our cultural soft power is decisive for China to reach the Two Centenary Goals and realize the Chinese Dream of rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. 

We should carry forward advanced socialist culture, further the reform of the cultural system, develop and enrich socialist culture, inspire the whole nation to engage in cultural creation, beef up the growth of cultural enterprises, enrich the people's cultural life, ignite their inspiration, strengthen our cultural power and competitiveness, and reach the goal of building China into a socialist cultural power. 

To strengthen our cultural soft power, we should reinforce the cornerstone of our national cultural soft power. We should adhere to a development path of socialist culture featuring Chinese characteristics, intensify the study of and education in the core socialist value system, carry forward the national spirit and the spirit of the times, encourage people to have their ideals and beliefs, establish prosperous cultural undertakings, and speed up the growth of cultural enterprises. 

To reinforce the foundation for domestic cultural progress, one of the major tasks is to enhance ideological and moral education, and build up social morality by starting with every individual. We should carry forward and foster the traditional morality long cultivated and developed by our ancestors. 

Under the guidance of Marxist and socialist ethics, we should make the past serve the present and put forth new ideas on the basis of eliminating the false and retaining the true for the creative transformation and progress of traditional Chinese ethics, so as to lead the people on the way to yearning for and aspiring to life-long learning, respecting and obeying moral standards, so that every one of the 1.3 billion Chinese citizens can be part of a team to disseminate Chinese morality and culture. 

To strengthen our cultural soft power, we should disseminate the values of modern China. Modern Chinese values are also those of socialism with Chinese characteristics, representing advanced Chinese culture. China has blazed a successful socialist path featuring Chinese characteristics. Facts prove that our path and system, theoretical and social, are successful. More work should be done to refine and explain our ideas, and extend the platform for overseas publicity, so as to make our culture known through international communication and dissemination. 

We should relate the Chinese Dream to modern Chinese values during our dissemination and explanation. The Chinese Dream is a dream cherished and aspired to by the Chinese people and nation, a dream of building China into a well-off society in an all-round way and rejuvenating the Chinese nation, a dream for everyone to make his own dream come true, a dream that the whole nation strives for, and a dream to show the world China's commitment to making a greater contribution to the peace and development of mankind. 

To strengthen our cultural soft power, we should showcase the unique charm of Chinese culture. 

During its 5,000-year history, the Chinese nation has created a brilliant and profound culture. We should disseminate the most fundamental Chinese culture in a popular way to attract more people to participate in it, matching modern culture and society. We should popularize our cultural spirit across countries as well as across time and space, with contemporary values and the eternal charm of Chinese culture. We should tell the rest of the world about the new achievements of modern Chinese culture, which feature both excellent tradition and modern spirit, both national and international. 

To this end, efforts should be made to sort out traditional cultural resources and bring back to life relics sleeping in closed palaces, legacies of the vast land of China and records in ancient books. We should convince the people with reason and morality, improve cultural communication with other countries and intensify our system of cultural and educational exchanges, blaze new trails, and use various means, such as mass media, group dissemination and interpersonal communication. 

To build a beautiful image of our country, we should display the Chinese civilization of a long history and unity of diversified ethnic groups with varying cultures; an Oriental power with honest and capable political administrations, developed economy, thriving culture, stable society, unified people and splendid landscapes; a responsible great power that is committed to peaceful development, common growth, international fairness and justice, and contributions to mankind; and a socialist power opening its door wider to the outside world, full of hope, vigor and vitality. 

To strengthen our cultural soft power, we should intensify our international right to a voice, enhance our capability of international communication and spare no efforts in establishing a system for international discourse to tell, in the right way, the true story of our country and make our voices heard through giving full play to the emerging media and enhancing our creativity, influence and public trust. 

We should disseminate the glorious history and excellent culture of the Chinese nation and people. We should also enhance education in patriotism, collectivism and socialism with the help of all possible means, such as classroom teaching, theoretical research, historical study, films and television programs, and literary works, and help our people build up and persist in a correct concept of history, national viewpoint, state outlook and cultural perspective, so as to fortify the will of the Chinese people, who should be prouder of being Chinese. 

* Main points of the speech at the 12th group study session of the Political Bureau of the 18th CPC Central Committee which Xi presided over. 

(Not to be republished for any commercial or other purposes.)