Senior officials yesterday called on the country to boost its "soft power" to provide a cultural element to its rise.

Liu Yunshan, head of the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, made the appeal during a special consultative conference in Beijing organized by the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

"To improve its cultural soft power, China should maintain its cultural liveliness by promoting innovation and drawing useful lessons from foreign experiences, while at the same time preserving the country's traditional cultural heritage as well," said Liu, who is also a member of the Political Bureau and the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee.

Chinese culture has been making its presence felt internationally in recent years. The Concert for the Chinese Spring Festival at the Golden Hall of Vienna and the establishment of more than 156 Confucius Institutes have all served to demonstrate China's growing soft power.

Meanwhile, the authorities have approved and established 15 cultural centers overseas - in the Republic of Korea, Malta, Egypt, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Russia, India, Italy, Mexico and Japan, among others.

Minister of Culture Sun Jiazheng said the centers serve three functions: presenting information about China, providing teaching and training about Chinese cultural activities and offering a venue for Chinese cultural activities.

Between 2003 and the first half of this year the centers organized 842 cultural activities, and the number of registered students in the training classes climbed to 13,711.

"Having access to a regular source of Chinese cultural services is convenient for locals," Sun said.

Meanwhile, the 89 cultural groups operated by the Chinese embassies in 78 countries have also undertaken cultural exchanges involving education, sports, media, youths, religion and science, Sun added.

However, experts said China's efforts to build its soft power, especially its cultural soft power, lagged behind its economic development.

Wu Tao, vice-director of the Committee of Foreign Affairs under the CPPCC, said the country needed a clear national cultural development strategy, and that "some forms of cultural development have not been fulfilled and lack strong government support".

"We have failed to bring unique Chinese cultural resources, for example, the Great Wall and Giant Pandas, onto the world stage, and it is even rare for renowned Chinese companies, public figures or films to find fame overseas," said Wu, who formerly served as China's ambassador to Russia and Australia.

Apart from advising the central government to seek out new policies and foster new talent in promoting cultural exchanges, he also called for preferential export taxation and the immediate promulgation of the Cultural Industry Promotion Law.

(China Daily 07/25/2007 page4)