Photo: Li Hao/GT

The Press Center for the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) held two collective interviews with Chinese and foreign media from around the globe on Tuesday. Senior officials from 14 municipalities and provinces across the country took part, the first time that spokespersons for delegations have met the press on the sidelines of the Party's national congress.

The first collective interview at 3 pm Tuesday was held at the Media Center of Beijing. Journalists from Chinese and foreign media attended and asked questions via video link from the press center at the Hotel Nikko New Century Beijing. Senior officials from Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Liaoning and Jilin introduced discussions and learning from the report delivered by Xi Jinping at the opening session of the 20th CPC National Congress and their future development plans.

The officials attended the collective interviews as delegation spokespersons of their municipalities and provinces, and they answered questions from the press covering topics like the coordinated development for the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, new energy development and energy transition in Shanxi and Inner Mongolia, and revitalization of Northeast China in the new era, as well as the construction of Xiong'an New Area in Hebei.

The second collective interview on Tuesday was held in the evening with participants from the delegations of Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Fujian, Jiangxi and Heilongjiang. In the following days until the closing session of the 20th CPC National Congress on Saturday, spokesperson of delegations from other provinces, judicial authorities and governmental departments will hold collective interviews and press conferences to introduce relevant issues regarding China's development and the CPC's governance in different aspects. 

A spokesperson designated by each delegation aims to timely disseminate information about the work of the Party and the Party's national congress, which is also a concrete manifestation of intra-Party democracy and the whole-process people's democracy, Zhang Xixian, a professor at the Party School of the CPC Central Committee in Beijing, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

Xi, on May 31, 2021, stressed improving the country's capacity for engaging in international communication to present a true, multi-dimensional and panoramic view of China. Xi made the remarks when addressing a group study session of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

Xi mentioned in the speech that officials at all levels should actively participate in international communication work, which not only shows the improvement of China's international influence but also marks the further deepening of the Party's contact with the world, Zhang said.

In a report delivered at the opening session of the 20th CPC National Congress, Xi said "We will strengthen our international communication capabilities, make our communication more effective, and strive to strengthen China's voice in international affairs so it is commensurate with our composite national strength and international status."  "We will deepen exchanges and mutual learning with other civilizations and better present Chinese culture to the world."

Yang Xuedong, a professor of political science at Tsinghua University, told the Global Times that the CPC always stresses the modernization of governance, and a key element of modernized governance is "openness and transparency, as well as effective and sufficient communication [with the public and the outside world]."

There is still much to be done in terms of the capacity and extent of China's international communication work. What the Party and Chinese government will focus on next is to improve the ability to tell the real story of China to the world, so that more people can truly feel the life of ordinary people in this country, Zhang remarked.

The new attempts like the collective interviews on the sidelines of the 20th CPC National Congress is a major step forward, as foreign journalists said they have learnt a lot of new information about China's development and also the political system of China.

Ojeda Bello Istvan, a journalist from Cuban media Periodico 26 who attended the collective interviews on Tuesday, told the Global Times that although the event is mostly about China's internal affairs and local development in different regions, it is still very interesting because he can learn the differences in terms of development between cities and provinces within China.

Istvan was very interested in a concept mentioned many times in the report delivered by Xi to the 20th CPC National Congress - common prosperity. He said since reform and opening-up in 1978, China has developed really fast but this also brings uneven development in different regions, which is unavoidable since China is a huge country, so now how China realizes common prosperity is key to Chinese modernization.

He said Cuba is also a socialist country, and it also has the same problem of uneven development, so China's experiences will be helpful for Cuba to solve similar problems. 

Kiva Nelson, a journalist from Uganda's media New Vision, said he also finds the advantage of the democracy of socialism with Chinese characteristics. He said many African countries were colonized by Western countries, so their political systems or democratic systems mostly copy or follow the Western democratic system. 

However, this kind of system has exposed more and more disadvantages and problems at present, and he said that Chinese democracy is not only more equal and fair, but can also bring leadership that has responsibility for the country and the people.