Wang Guoqing, vice-minister of State Council Information Office (SCIO), led a panel discussion of public diplomacy hosted by China Daily USA in Washington on Thursday. From left: Guo Weimin, director general of the Press Bureau of SCIO; Chi Wang, co-chairman of the US-China Policy Foundation; Chas Freeman, former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia and Chinese interpreter for former president Richard Nixon; Wang Guoqing; Mary Jordan, Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalist of the Washington Post; James Sasser, former US ambassador to China; and Larry Lee, president of China Daily USA. [Sun Chenbei / China Daily]

WASHINGTON - To help foreign countries improve the understanding of China, the Chinese government is making great efforts to enhance its public diplomacy skills, a senior Chinese official said Thursday.

Wang Guoqing, vice-minister of China's State Council Information Office, held a talk with several top American experts on China and US media representatives to discuss how China can improve its communication with American public.

The meeting in Washington was hosted by China Daily USA, which started distributing its paper in the US in 2009 and now delivers to nine major American cities.

"Most people get to know other countries through the media, so it is very important for us to work with international media and help them have a comprehensive view of China," Wang said.

He said, as China becomes more open and integrated with the rest of the world, the country has already paid a lot of attention to public diplomacy and a lot of efforts have been made in this regard, such as increasing the people-to-people exchange programs and expanding Chinese media overseas.

But there are still some very different views between how Chinese perceive themselves and what other countries think of China, he said.

"We are trying to bridge the gap," he said.

Chi Wang, co-chairman of the US-China Policy Foundation, said that it is very important for Chinese media to reach out to the US public and expand their influence through social media.

"I didn't anticipate China Daily could achieve such fast progress in the last few years," he said.

Ambassador Charles Freeman, who was the interpreter for President Richard Nixon during visit to China his 1972, advised Wang's agency to have more exchanges with international visitors and hold regular meetings with public diplomacy experts.

He also suggested that Chinese investors in the US engage more with local media, telling how they benefit the local communities.

Ambassador James Sasser, US ambassador to China from 1995-1999, said US media coverage on China has improved greatly since the time when he was in China.

"In the 1990s, it was all about negative aspects about China, and now they are doing much better job writing about the Chinese economy and government management," he said. "But the Chinese public should not expect too much from foreign media, because US media is not positive about everything."

Some attendees praised the rapid improvement of China's English-language media overseas, such as China Daily USA and News China, a monthly magazine published by China News Service.

"They run interesting articles with nice graphics and layout and put insight into the topics that Americans are interested in," Sasser said.

China Daily