Senior Communist Party of China (CPC) official Cai Qi addressed a meeting on publicity held in Beijing on Friday and Saturday, calling for a thorough study and full implementation of the Xi Jinping Thought on Culture.
Cai, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and a member of the CPC Central Committee Secretariat, made the statement at the meeting for the country's publicity officials.
He underscored the importance of consolidating and expanding the mainstream thoughts and ideas, upholding the core socialist values, deepening reforms in the cultural sector, and establishing a more effective international communication system, so as to provide a strong ideological guarantee, a powerful source of inspiration, and favorable cultural conditions for building China into a great country and advancing national rejuvenation on all fronts through Chinese modernization.
Noting that the Xi Jinping Thought on Culture is a cultural banner of the Party in the new era, Cai called for enhancing cultural services and the supply of cultural products.
He also emphasized the need to expand the breadth and depth of cultural exchanges and mutual learning.
Li Shulei, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee delivered work plans at the meeting.
Li urged efforts to fully implement the tasks of reform in the cultural sector, create a favorable cultural environment, and strengthen systematic protection of cultural heritage.
He also called for enhancing the effectiveness of international communication.
Senior CPC official calls for thorough study, implementation of Xi Jinping Thought on Culture
Kenneth Fok Kai-kong, a Hong Kong businessman and deputy to China's 14th National People's Congress (NPC), has unveiled a blueprint for turning the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) into a world-class "Sports Bay Area," aiming for coordinated regional sports growth.
In an interview with China Global Television Network released on Saturday, Fok outlined his vision for coordinated sports development in the GBA, emphasizing the need for a unified plan to leverage the region's unique strengths.
"I think in sports we always talk about legacy. So what is the [National] Games legacy? What do you leave behind? And I think this is important, to have a mechanism to be able to extend this. It's not just the National Games. It could be different sporting events that we could co-host together. You asked me about the advantages. The advantages are very simple. I've floated this idea to a lot of these international federations and to them it just makes sense. To them, it makes sense because of the population. If they're going to give you a sporting IP, it's not going to be cheap, it's big business. If we can co-host, we can share the cost, but at the same time increase the number of spectators, put in more tourism dollars into it and you spread out the cost of hosting. It just makes sense to everyone," he said.
"Because you look at the Greater Bay Area, there's so many beautiful, magnificent venues that are the legacies of the Asian Games, etcetera, etcetera. And we have Hong Kong with the new Kai Tak Stadium too. So how do we put this together in a systematic way and really fight for or get big IPs to the Bay Area. This will gel the area together," the NPC deputy added.
Fok's proposal aims to harness the region's resources and population to create a distinctive sports identity and boost China's presence in international sports.
"I think what's more important now for sports is to have our say. How can China have a bigger say in the world sporting arena? And one thing is to build our own IP back to the point where you say we have confidence. We're not just buying other people's things. We have our own product. So I think the Bay Area, obviously, I think can come up with a lot of events. We call it the Bay football or Bay Area basketball competition. These are all things that we could think about and again, if we have the population base, if we have the consumption behind it, it could work," he said.
This year, Fok brought nine proposals to the ongoing 14th NPC, covering an array of areas including sports, culture, aviation and consumption.
The 14th NPC is holding its annual session from Thursday through March 12.
NPC deputy from Hong Kong proposes 'Sports Bay Area' to boost regional events
