In its infancy, the foreign-related cultural exchange of the People's Republic of China (PRC) was conducted under the kind concern and high attention of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Chinese government. For many years, with a view of the function and position of the foreign-related cultural exchange in our whole diplomatic work, in constructing an ideological and ethical progress and in the flourishing of socialist culture and art -- according to the instruction of the CPC -- we have formulated a series of active foreign-related cultural exchange policies to ensure that culture exchange develops in a correct and healthy manner. The foreign-related cultural policy of our country mainly includes the following elements: 1) The foreign-related cultural exchange policy shall comply with and serve the general diplomatic policy of the CPC and the country; 2) The foreign-related cultural exchange policy shall remain in compliance with the construction of a national ideological and ethical progress; 3) The foreign-related cultural exchange policy shall comply with the national cultural policy and serve the development of a national cultural cause; 4) Culture exchanges shall be conducted on the basis of mutual benefit and respect, and one's will and ideology shall not be imposed on others.

For more than 40 years, the foreign-related cultural exchange in China, being conducted on the basis of this policy, has achieved great achievements. Especially since the reform and open policy were carried out, China's foreign-related cultural exchange has made significant developments.

On the eve of the founding of the PRC, important decisions on the diplomatic policy of the PRC have been made in the Second Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee of the CPC held in March 1949 and the First Session of National Peoples' Political and Consultancy Conference in September that year. In order to put an end to semi-colonial diplomacy and protect the independence and authority of the PRC, the diplomatic principle of making a fresh start, cleaning up the inside before inviting guests, Leaning to one side, was raised. According to this guideline and the international situation, when the PRC was established, the first objective of the foreign-related cultural exchange is the socialist country; the purposes of exchange are to introduce the great victory of the Chinese revolution and to let more people and countries in the world hear the voice of the PRC so that China can be recognized by more nations. Meanwhile, we can develop the cultural cause of the PRC by learning the experiences of foreign countries.

After the PRC was set up, the first foreign cultural group to be received was the Russian representative group of culture, art and scientific workers, with famous Russian writers Faddeev and Simonov as the head and vice-head. The first cultural group dispatched by China was the representative group of Chinese culture and work that consisted of famous Chinese writers like Ding Ling, Sha Kefu, Zhao Shuli, etc. In late October 1949, the group left for Russia and attended the 32nd anniversary of the October Revolution. China later launched its cultural exchange activities with Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Democratic Germany, Bulgaria, Albania, Korea and Vienna, etc.

Many Asian, African and Latin American countries in history share similar experiences with China. They have all suffered an external invasion and oppression by foreign colonials, and maintained mutual sympathy and mutual support in the struggle against colonialism by fighting for national revolution and national independence. The PRC attached great importance to maintaining a friendly cooperative relationship with such countries.

The Afro-Asian Bandung Conference held on April 18-24, 1955, was the first international conference held by Asian-African countries, with none of west colonial countries participating after World War II. The conference was named after Bandung Indonesia, where it was held. It was initiated by five countries: Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Burma, and Ceylon (Sri Lanka); and there were 29 Asian and African countries at the conference. The conference held up the banner of national independence, discussed issues of war and peace and passed a declaration on promoting world peace and cooperation and a resolution on economic cooperation and cultural cooperation. Premier Zhou Enlai led Chinese representatives to participate in the conference. To prevent the conference from moving into a wrong direction, the Chinese representative group raised the principle of seeking a common ground while reserving differences and playing an important role in the conference's success. Via conference speeches, broad communication and explanations, the Chinese group eliminated misunderstandings and suspicions about China harbored by other countries. It promoted the friendship and mutual understanding between the Chinese and such nations.

At the conference, Premier Zhou Enlai clarified the position and policy of the Chinese government in developing and cooperating with Asian and African countries. In a major speech, the premier said: We Asian and African countries need to cooperate with each other in economic and cultural cooperation so as to put an end to the backward state of economy and culture, which is caused by the long-term robbery and oppression of colonialism. The cooperation of our Afro-Asian countries shall be conducted on the basis of mutual benefit; no preference conditions shall be attached… Cultural exchange asks us to respect the development of the national culture of others; we shall learn and emulate each other instead of eliminating the advantages of others. This expressed the sincere willingness of the Chinese people and people of all Afro-Asian countries to conduct a cultural exchange, and stressed the principle of mutual benefit and respect in it.

From the Afro-Asian Bandung Conference until 1965, 27 Asian, African and Latin African countries set up a diplomatic relationship with China. During this period, China kept developing its cultural cooperation with all socialist countries while cultural exchanges with all Asian, African and Latin American countries were conducted actively. The countries in cultural communication with China jumped from about a dozen to more than two scores. Chinese personnel and experts in culture, education, science and health kept visiting these countries with a view of respecting their traditional ethical culture and learning from them modestly.

Following the Afro-Asian Bandung Conference, China engaged in strengthening its relationship with Afro-Asian countries as it hoped to develop further communications with Western European countries. In 1964 Chairman Mao Zedong raised the strategic ideology of Two Intermediate Areas, including developing continents like Asia, Africa, Latin America, etc as the First Intermediate Area between America and Russia, and Western Europe, Japan, Canada, Australia, New Zealand as the Second Intermediate Area. Chairman Mao also pointed out that the western world was not a block of sheet iron. In June 1964, receiving the parliament representatives from France, Chairman Mao pointed out there were two basic links between China and France: the desire is to escape the control of superpowers and to strengthen communication in culture and economy between two countries. Under the guidance of Chairman Mao, in developing a relationship with Western European countries, China now assumes an active attitude and conducts cultural exchanges actively. Starting from May 1950, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Finland and Norway began their diplomatic relationship with China; the UK also set up a charge-d'affaires relationship with China, and it conducted folk cultural communication with these countries. In January 1964, China set up diplomatic relationship with France; in October 1965, the Cultural Exchange Plan of 1965 and 1966 was signed between China and France, which was the first cultural exchange plan signed by the Chinese government with a Western European country. During this period, China also conducted folk cultural exchange activities with Belgium, Holland, Italy, Luxemburg, Greece, Austria, Canada, New Zealand, etc. The form of exchange covered performances, exhibitions, movie weeks, international film festivals, literary celebrity memory activities, international art festivals and mutual visits by cultural official representatives.

Ten years of turmoil during the Culture Revolution, starting from the latter half of 1996, caused great damage to the Chinese socialist revolution and socialist construction from which foreign-related cultural exchange was not exempt. Lin Biao and Jiang Qing led the counter-revolutionary group, pushing an extremely left routine with the highest authority of the party and nation. They willfully denied the great achievements in diplomatic work in the past 17 years, since the nation was established, said that the diplomatic line in the last 17 years was on of Three Surrenders One Perish -- to surrender to imperialism, to surrender to revisionism, to surrender to all reactionaries, and to perish public revolution. They falsely declared that the cultural exchange with other countries was a class struggle in the field of internal ideology, and presumptuously called the Russian culture and western countries as a revisionist and reactionary and decadent imperialist culture, and kept them out of China. In external propaganda, they were extremely conceited and imposed their will on others, which caused ten thousand horses standing mute on the domestic art stage, and suppressed art creation. Under such circumstances, few noteworthy projects were introduced to the outside. Erroneous internal and external policies pushed the foreign-related cultural exchange of this period to the bottom.

Premier Zhou Enlai defended and struggled against this routine. Under his guidance, the foreign-related cultural exchange of China still continued with a few other countries. In response to Jiang Qing's slanderous request -- keeping the imperialist art completely out of China -- Premier Zhou clearly pointed out that it is impossible to completely prevent them (foreigners) from coming in. In 1971, as China's legal position in the United Nations was recovering, many other countries began to set up relations with China, and cultural exchanges with these countries were conducted gradually. From 1971 to 1976, nearly 30 foreign art groups and artists were received in China; among them there was the American Philadelphia Orchestra, the Austria Wiena Symphoiker and the UK National Philharmonic Orchestra, etc. Meanwhile, about 30 art groups were dispatched abroad, demonstrating the will and effort of the Chinese government to actively develop friendly relationships and promote cultural exchanges with other countries.

In October 1976, the CPC Central Committee eliminated the counter-revolutionary group, Gang of Four completely, putting the 10-year turmoil to an end. In December 1978, the Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of CPC was held -- a symbol indicating that Chinese socialist modern construction had entered a new stage. Having cleared up the confusion and rectified the reversals of right and wrong public thought, the reform and opening-up policy started to work. Comrade Deng Xiaoping -- in the practice course of reform and opening-up and socialist modern construction on the basis of summarizing China's historic experiences and other socialist nations -- raised the theory to construct a socialist society with Chinese characteristics. In diplomatic policy, he insisted in an independent and peaceful foreign policy and strived for a favorable international environment for China. In December 1982, the Fifth Session of the Fifth National People's Congress passed the Constitution of People's Republic of China. Here, the basic principle of Chinese diplomatic policy was stipulated as: China shall assist with independent foreign policy by adhering to the five principles of peaceful coexistence of mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity; non-aggression; non-interference in each other's internal affairs; equality and mutual benefit and peaceful coexistence; developing friendly relations and economic and cultural exchanges with other countries; and opposing imperialism, hegemony and colonialism; strengthening the union with people from all over the world; supporting suppressed nations and developing countries to fight for and protect their independence; developing a justice struggle for the national economy to safeguard world peace and promote the progress of human beings. The ideology on striving for a favourable international environment for domestic modern construction and opening-up to construct a socialist society with Chinese characteristics, the basic principles of the Chinese diplomatic policy stipulated in the constitution and the action of listing foreign-related cultural exchanges in national basic law, were all supplying legal policy according to foreign-related cultural exchange.

According to Comrade Deng's theory, to construct a socialist society with Chinese characteristics and the basic principles of a China foreign diplomatic policy, our foreign-related cultural exchange policy gets enriched and perfected continuously in practice. At present, this policy mainly includes the following elements:

1.Attach importance to absorbing and drawing lessons from all excellent works of human civilization to serve the Chinese socialist modern construction. On June 30, 1991, on the congratulatory meeting of the 70 anniversaries of the CPC, Jiang Zemin pointed out that we must actively absorb and draw lessons from all excellent works of human civilization and cast them into our socialist culture with Chinese characteristics. On October 12, 1992, in Comrade Jiang's report for the 14th Congress of the CPC, Jiang Zemin again emphasized that all advanced civilizations shall be introduced and used to develop socialism. In accordance with this spirit, when conducting cultural exchanges with other countries and introducing foreign arts and culture, we shall adhere to the principle of introducing the excellent, which means when we select introduced projects, those artists, perform groups, collections of art museums, galleries and excellent national folk culture and arts from all over the world being considered in priority, shall be capable of attaining the highest level of world culture and art.

2.Lay emphasis on introducing more and more Chinese traditional national culture and arts to the world. Culture and arts, especially fine art, is much easier to be accepted by foreigners because there are less language barriers. Through cultural exchange, we shall introduce excellent Chinese culture to the world and promote our reform and opening-up policy and achievements of socialist construction to the world to set up a world image of socialist China and promote friendship and mutual understanding with other countries, and also strive for a favorable international environment for our four modernizations. Therefore, the multi-production principle shall be performed to continuously increase the amount of projects, to further explore the rich cultural resources of our country and to gradually enlarge the art catalogues frequenting exchanges. Meanwhile, the art quality shall also be gradually heightened so that the Chinese culture and arts being introduced abroad will be more splendid and colorful.

3. Attach importance to enlarging the cultural exchange with neighboring countries. It is one of the important parts of China's independent and peaceful diplomatic policy to develop friendly relationships with neighboring countries and to create a peaceful and stable surrounding environment. Recently, China has paid special attention to cultural exchanges with these countries. Judging from history, China has kept close cultural exchanges with neighboring countries, and the culture of many such countries were kept in close relation to Chinese culture. There are many common points of cultural tradition, morality and customs that make it easier to understand and absorb each other's culture and provide favorable conditions for China to conduct cultural exchanges with these countries.

4. Continuously develop cultural exchange with developing counties. Developing countries, as an important political force on the present international stage, share a common language with China on many international issues. It is a basic stand of China's diplomatic policy to strengthen unity and cooperation with such nations. Therefore, it is one of the important tasks for the Chinese foreign-related cultural exchange 　 working towards the development of cultural communication with developing countries. It is noteworthy to that people of developing countries make excellent contributions to the development of human civilization; the national folk art created by them is  splendid. It will enlarge the cultural vision of the Chinese people and be of great benefit to the development of the Chinese socialist, cultural, art cause.

5. Further develop cultural relations with countries from Western Europe, Northern America and Oceania. Countries in these regions possess advanced economy and higher-level culture and arts, and have accumulated rich experience in the operation and management of the cultural cause. It will be of great benefit to China's culture construction to develop cultural exchanges with these countries and to embrace their excellent cultural achievements. On the other hand, cultural exchanges will help people of these countries recognize China and eliminate the misunderstanding caused by some false reports used by the West.

6. Set a new phase of multi-level, multi-channel, and multi-form, foreign-related cultural exchanges. To extend the foreign-related cultural exchange in width and depth, it must be multi-leveled, including both the mutual visit of senior government officers and various art groups and artists. Multi-channeled means to make full use of the official and the public; to conduct foreign-related cultural exchange by using different channels of official, semi-official and folk forces. It should be multi-formed, which covers the performance and exhibition of art groups and art exhibitions, profitable performances and exhibitions, commercial performances and exhibitions, sales exhibitions, teaching and research, various bilateral and multi-lateral cultural activities, etc. Only this way, can foreign-related cultural exchange play a better role in socialist ethical culture construction and general diplomatic work.