Taihu forum, China Daily to strengthen soft power

China's flagship cultural forum signed up China Daily on Tuesday to employ the media group's strength in enhancing global cultural exchanges as well as the nation's soft power.

The alliance is an "inevitable choice" for both parties when facing the challenges of the times, and is an essential way to seek common development, according to Yan Zhaozhu, president of Taihu World Cultural Forum, a Chinese NGO that promotes Chinese culture and serves as a platform for international nongovernment exchanges.

"The partnership will help make Chinese voices heard, and contribute Chinese wisdom to the world," he said.

Yan spoke at the signing ceremony for the forum and the national newspaper, which has grown into a global media organization. The ceremony was followed by a news conference for the forum's fifth annual conference, to be held in Beijing in October.

The three-day conference is expected to see around 800 global participants including government officials, scholars and entrepreneurs. The theme for this year is "Cultural Dialogue - Building a Community with a Shared Future for Mankind".

Participants will discuss topics such as international relations, economy, culture, ecology, the Belt and Road Initiative, the internet, philosophy, sociology and traditional medicine.

Zhou Shuchun, publisher and editor-in-chief of China Daily, said the shared vision to promote Chinese culture and soft power has laid the foundation for the cooperation, and their respective strengths will provide tremendous momentum.

"In the future, we'll integrate our resources and complement each other with our advantages to develop the forum and related projects," he said. "We'll strive for a high-quality forum and continue to launch new cultural products."

China's central leadership has called for building stronger confidence in China's culture and underscored the task's importance to rejuvenate the Chinese nation.

Founded in 2008, the Taihu forum has been among the best-known national cultural promoters under the leadership of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles. It has held multiple cultural conferences and seminars involving many politicians, scholars and world organization leaders.

China Daily, considered an important platform for the world to understand China, reaches an audience of more than 150 million worldwide on various platforms.