The International version of "The Classic Quotes by Xi Jinping," a multilingual TV program featuring Chinese President Xi Jinping's quotes from ancient Chinese classics in his speeches and articles, began airing on Serbian media outlets on Tuesday.
A launch ceremony for the program, produced by China's flagship broadcaster China Media Group (CMG), was held in Belgrade on Tuesday, to coincide with Xi's state visit to Serbia.
At the invitation of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, Xi is paying a state visit to Serbia, eight years after his last visit to the country.
Serbia is the second stop of Xi's three-country European tour from May 5 to 10, which also includes France and Hungary.
Shen Haixiong, vice minister of the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and president of CMG, and Dragan Bujosevic, director of Serbian National Radio and Television, attended the ceremony.
President Vucic delivered a video message to the event and congratulated the producers on the broadcast of the program in Serbia.
Vucic warmly welcomed President Xi's visit to Serbia. He expressed his gratitude to CMG for its great efforts in promoting Serbia-China friendship. Serbia warmly welcomes CMG activities in the country and looks forward to strengthening exchanges in various ways in the future, to bring Serbia-China friendship to a new level, he said.
In his speech, Shen said that he believed that the premiere of the program in Serbia can open a window of thought for Serbian people to understand President Xi's wisdom in governance and understand Chinese culture, thereby helping them understand the unique charm of China in the new era.
The program carefully selects famous quotes from ancient Chinese classics that Xi has used in his important speeches, articles and remarks. Focusing on themes including green development, ecological civilization, legal construction, common prosperity and protection of cultural heritages, the program vividly presents Xi's political wisdom and rich knowledge of history and traditional Chinese culture.
The program and its promotional video have been aired by other media outlets across Europe and around the world, including the pan-European news channel Euronews and France’s BFM Business.