On June 30, the Seminar on Public Diplomacy and Guangdong’s "Going Global" Strategy was held at the international conference hall of GDUFS. This seminar is sponsored by GRIIS. Renowned experts and scholars from Foreign Affairs Office of the People's Government of Guangdong Province, China Public Diplomacy Association, Sun Yat-sen University, Jinan University, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies(GDUFS), and Guangdong Rising Assets Management Co., Ltd. (GRAM) came to make in-depth and heated discussion about public diplomacy and Guangdong’s “going global” strategy and give advice on the design of national strategic policy. Great achievements have been made. Zhong Weihe, the president of GDUFS, Song Ronghua, secretary-general of China Public Diplomacy Association, and Zhang Weidong, vice director of Gaungdong Foreign Affairs Office attended and delivered speeches. Professor Li Qing, secretary-general of GRIIS presided over the opening ceremony.
Zhong Weihe delivered a speech
In his speech, Zhong Weihe said that this seminar was conducive to upgrading the research quality of GRIIS and deepening the understanding of China’s public diplomacy. He expressed his thanks to Chu Maoming, Counselor of the Ministry of Foreign Afffairs and and visiting researcher of GRIIS. Since Department of Personnel of Ministry of Foreign Affairs signed a cadre training cooperation agreement with GRIIS, Chu Maoming, as the first senior diplomat visiting GDUFS, have delivered a number of lectures to talk about foreign policy, have finished the research project of public diplomacy and Guangdong’s “going global”, and have made great contributions to GRIIS.
Zhang Weidong, in his speech, said that Guangdong is the forefront of reform and opening-up and Guangdong’s “going global” is of vital significance. He believed that GRIIS should shoulder the responsibility as a think-tank to support the social an economic development of Guangdong Province. Therefore, this seminar is just in time.
The keynote speech of the first period was chaired by Chen Hanxi, deputy secretary general of GRIIS. Chu Maoming expressed his own views of enterprise’s “going global”. He took some specific cases as example and analyzed the Chinese enterprise’s development in America. He believed that successful public diplomacy could help enterprises upgrade their own images and learn more about the law, culture and society of the target country. He suggested to set up an efficient public diplomacy team and gave some advice on the participation in public welfare and adaptation to local law, culture and society.
Song Ronghua believed that to summarize the reasons for the success of Guangdong’s development and reform could provide experience for other countries to draw on and is also a way to promote China’s soft power.
Xiao Yaofei, principal researcher of GRIIS mentioned that attention should be paid to risk prevention in the process of “going global”, esp. localization problems.
Experts from outside the school spoke at the seminar
The keynote speech of the second period was chaired by Hu Wentao, the director of Publicity Department of the Party Committee of GDUFS. Tang Xiaosong, principal researcher of GRIIS and director of Canadian Studies Center elaborated on the denotation and connotation of public diplomacy. Zhang Zhenjaing, professor of School of International Relations of Jinan University, expressed his view on “going global” targeted to those overseas Chinese.
Zhang Yuquan, associate professor of School of Asia-Pacific Studies of Sun Yat-sen University thinks that Guangdong Province boasts its great resources of overseas Chinese in carrying out public diplomacy, but there are still some problems remaining.
Gu Yeli, vice president of GDUFS, summarized that Guangdong’s “going global” is of vital significance to China and Chian’s “going global” is all-dimensional. The research on public diplomacy deserves the attention of the Collaborative Innovation Center of GDUFS.
Zhong Weihe presented the agreements of appointment to Song Ronghua and Zhang Weidong as guest researchers of GRIIS.
