On February 28, China Forum (CF) under the Center for International Security and Strategy (CISS) at Tsinghua University held a seminar on its action plan for 2023 and international communication, convening more than thirty experts and scholars either online or offline. CF Vice Chair Da Wei, Secretary General Zhang Lirong, and Executive Committee member Xiao Qian also joined the meeting onsite.

CF Vice Chair Da Wei delivered opening and concluding remarks. Over the four years since its establishment in early 2019, China Forum has gained its footing and established its brand, said Da. He expressed his gratitude to the Forum’s first Executive Committee, which just went through a reconstitution, as well as to all CF experts and scholars for their fruitful work for the institution’s development, and expressed his great hopes for the efforts of the new Executive Committee. Da Wei stressed that, on the one hand, the volatile international situation as well as the harsh and complex public opinion on China have created increasingly challenging conditions for our international communication efforts; on the other hand, China’s policy to manage COVID-19 with measures against Class B infectious diseases has provided a critical opportunity for us to resume communication with other countries as experts and scholars can now tell China’s story on more international platforms. Despite the daunting international landscape, there is always room and responsibility for scholars to communicate and work with each other. China Forum will continue to explore and clarify its positioning, encourage its experts and scholars to speak up on its platform, promote resource sharing among members, advance international exchanges, and share China’s voices and perspectives with the rest of the world.

CF Secretary General Zhang Lirong took stock of the work of the Forum in 2022 and shared a look-ahead for the year 2023. China Forum has risen to the challenges despite the austere conditions for international communication, said Zhang. With the strong support of its experts and partners, in 2022, the Forum organized and sent experts to a total of over 50 international conferences; 30 CF experts published articles or gave interviews more than 60 times in foreign media outlets; and the Forum produced over 100 editions of a variety of original video/audio programs and articles. China Forum’s highlights in 2022 include: the promotion and interpretation of the 20th CPC National Congress, strengthened cooperation with Asian think tanks under the theme of the “Moment of Asia,” the organization of its first overseas seminar, its active collaboration with China’s diplomatic efforts and international cooperation in organizing or engaging in various events, the resumed participation of CF experts in offline meetings abroad since the outbreak of the pandemic, and the substantial increase in the articles and interviews by CF experts in foreign media outlets. Zhang also noted that this year’s work of the Forum has been carried out along the following direction: the Forum will continue to organize or send experts to international conferences based on China’s needs in terms of foreign policy promotion and cooperation, to support its experts to publish more articles and give more interviews in foreign journals and media outlets, and to step up its podcast production. Suggestions and feedback are welcome so that China Forum can continue to advance its cooperation to deliver better results in international communication, said Zhang.

The panelists expressed their expectation that amid the challenges and opportunities in the world today, China Forum will keep building on its strengths, forging coordination and collaboration with think tanks, media, businesses and relevant government departments to continue to innovate channels of international communication. They also hope that the Forum will take major events such as the Two Sessions and the Third Belt and Road Summit as key enablers of its international communication efforts to build trust and defuse doubts, so that China will have greater initiative in the international public opinion arena. The discussion was moderated by CF Vice Chair Da Wei and Executive Committee member Xiao Qian.