Xu Shigu(the editor-in-chief of the Commercial Press):

With the further reform and opening up, especially the WTO entry, China's culture market will face new opportunities and challenges. Warding off harmful elements is not in contradiction with exchanging excellent cultures dialectically. For instance, eight volumes of Translated Works of World Masterpieces have been published, including more than 300 books, and it is a good example to introduce the outstanding cultural heritage into China.

The WTO entry brings about opportunity to the publishing realm. In the past, Chinese-to-English translated works such as A Dream of Red Mansions by the Yang Xianyi and Dai Naidie couple, Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung and Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping, etc. , and some books on medical treatment were introduced to abroad. However, the number is far from enough and the copyright transaction is in imbalance with more coming in and fewer going out. What's more, Chinese books enjoy much fewer channels to enter the markets in Europe, America and Australia. Relevant departments have made a lot of efforts but encountered many difficulties. Due to different cultural backgrounds, Chinese publishers are not familiar with tastes of foreign readers and situations in foreign markets; they enjoy limited distribution channels abroad and cannot sometimes guarantee translation quality; it takes a lot of money to launch book promotions or to set up representative offices abroad.

Zhang Shouyi (a professor of editorship of the People's Literature Publishing House):

After China joins the WTO, the country's publishing industry will inevitably encounter much fiercer competitions. In face of the cutthroat competition, improving book quality is the only way. A book comprises of two parts - contents and bookbinding. China's bookbinding, which holds the balance in determining a book's quality, falls behind the international level in terms of printing technology and paper quality and so on. Generally speaking, China's books are monotone in format, have no varieties in design and lack enough illustrations. Many publishers have made some improvement in these aspects but these problems still call for more attention.

Quite a few books packed in silk fabric, damask or wooden boards do not fit contents of those works; we should not advocate such way of bookbinding that aims to make money and simply pursue luxury in packaging materials but neglect designs with artistic value.

Zhang Qi (vice president of Chinese Writers Association):

As for how to make literature art serve education of the youth and contribute to cultivation of the new generation of socialism, I think we should strengthen aesthetic education while reducing their burden, and pay full attention to moral, intellectual, physical and aesthetic education.

In the past, some schools emphasized too much on intellectual education, but neglected moral, physical and aesthetic education to some extent. If this situation is not changed, Chinese youths in the new century are impossible to become all-round talents. Aesthetic education encompasses appreciation of literature works and various arts, and cultivation of interests in all this. We hope that education departments can join hands with literature artists, creating more opportunities for litterateurs and artists to enter classroom. As far as I know, many famous litterateurs and artists possess this hope. Just the day before yesterday, vice premier Li Lanqing also brought forward this proposition in his discussion with us.

Ke Yan (a noted writer):

Today I intend to talk something about education of the youth, especially my own suggestions for the present reform on Chinese textbooks. At present, some people try to deny the past teaching achievements in the excuse of Chinese teaching reform and attribute the stagnancy of new poetry to some works that highlight "mental civilization" in Chinese textbooks. It is natural and necessary as well to adjust contents in Chinese textbooks but we should by no means weaken education functions of these books and adopt the nihilistic attitude towards history, but carry through the principle of "inspiring people with outstanding works " advocated by Comrade Jiang Zemin.

After China joins the WTO, the intellectual property protection will become more challenging. Several years ago, I launched a magazine titled Rensheng Zixun (Life Consultation) jointly with some experts and scholars in the fields of literature, education and politics & laws. It was well received by readers. However, due to increasing pirating later, the publishing scale was affected and we have to stop publication. Chinese market becomes more open after the WTO entry and relevant departments should strictly implement the law and beef up crackdown on pirating to protect intellectual property and ensure healthy development of the national culture.

Jiang Yin (Director-General of the State Intellectual Property Office):

After the WTO entry, China is supposed to fulfill its rights and obligations in the field of intellectual property and this will have far-reaching effects on the work involving intellectual property protection. First, China promised to obey the rights and obligations stipulated in the WTO's Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). Second, according to WTO agreements, the dispute settlement mechanism of the WTO is also applicable when IPR disputes arise between China and other member countries. Third, China needs to raise IPR knowledge of its enterprises and institutions and their handling of IPR cases so as to meet requirements of the post-WTO situation.

Wu Boming(Deputy Director-General of the State Intellectual Property Office):

I propose promulgating a complete law of intellectual property rights through combining the existing copyright law, trademark law and patent law. This not only will pave way for combining departments of copyright, trademark and patent but also provide better legal guarantee for technological innovation. In my point of view, this proposal is feasible because intellectual property rights include patent, trademark and copyright, which have both similarities and specific characteristics. A complete law of intellectual property rights can include their similarities in general principles and specific characteristics, in separate rules. This practice not only will not affect the previous three laws but also can bring about many advantages -- first, it avoids repetitions of similarities in different laws and make the law more compendious; second, it helps unify judicatory and administrative protection departments; third, it does not have cross problems in protections of patent, trademark and copyright.

Wang Liming (a professor of the Law School in Renmin University of China):

I would like to talk about the intellectual property protection from the perspective of economic laws. The WTO's Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) provides a systematic prescription on rules governing the intellectual property. China's existing laws and regulations on intellectual property rights that are in conflict with TRIPS in some places shall be revised and improved.

Xu Weicheng (the editor-in-chief of China Great Encyclopedia Publishing House):

On the one hand, China's opening up is good to its publishing industry because it can help China learn from foreign advanced experience and push forward the national culture. On the other hand, we need to pay very high royalties on books when introducing foreign copyrights and thus prices for the books will be correspondingly raised high, which will inevitably result in more pirating irregularities. The CD-edition Encyclopedia published by China Great Encyclopedia Publishing House has altogether 24 CDs and is priced at over RMB2,000. Even if the encyclopedia sells well, it may take more than two years to write off the cost. However, pirated versions have already dominated the market swiftly with low prices. Successful stories against piracy are usually with publishers that possess powerful strength. Only after China breaks up the administrative monopoly and separate administrative functions from management of enterprises, bookstores and publishing houses can its publishing industry foster large-scale publishing and distribution groups. Besides eradicating piracy, the industry also aims to realize business operation in accordance with rules of the socialist market economy and to protect intellectual property rights by adopting administrative measures and strengthening publishers and book distributors.

(Source: China Education Daily, Author: Huang Yiqing, Liu Huarong, Liu Junjie, Wang Jun, Gao Huacheng, Yu Jiankun, Bao Xiaonong)