公共文化服务体系(gōnggòng wénhuà fúwù tǐxì): Public cultural services system

A law on public cultural services, which comes into effect on Wednesday, is an important breakthrough in cultural legislation.

It will accelerate the construction of a standardized public cultural services system aimed at enriching people's lives.

The fundamental goal of public cultural services is to better satisfy people's desire for cultural products and to safeguard their basic cultural rights and interests. It will encourage the launch of campaigns nationwide to promote reading and physical fitness, and the popularizing of science and art, as well as traditional culture.

Providing public cultural services is one of the important responsibilities of modern service-oriented governments, and, for the first time, the law stipulates it is the responsibility of governments at various levels to provide public cultural services. The law is the legal basis for supervising or evaluating local governments' performance in terms of providing public cultural services.

The construction of a modern system for public cultural services covering the whole of society will consolidate socialist values, help cultivate a spiritual civilization and promote a cultural identity.

The implementation of the new law on public cultural services will further strengthen the transparency of the government's role and safeguard people's fair and equal access to basic public cultural services.

The law also stipulates promoting a coordination mechanism for public cultural services. Since 2014, 26 central government departments, including the Ministry of Culture, have jointly established a coordinating group that can provide a good platform for strengthening their cooperation.