On November 7, 2011, Study Times, a journal of the Party School of the Central Committee of the CCP, published an article discussing the benefits of China’s foreign policy that Deng Xiaoping, the former head of the Chinese Communist Party from the late 1970s to the early 1990s, had proposed: to “hide our capabilities and bide our time.” The article pointed out, “After China started its economic reforms and opened to the world, China stopped using its (Communist) ideological standards to deal with other countries. This has successfully reversed the diplomatic situation, which has been unfavorable to China.” It continued that China’s foreign policy is to “hide the (Communist) ideology and modernize China according to its plans while other countries are in chaos.”

“Sino-US relations can usually move forward when a ‘third party trouble maker’ appears. Once the ‘third party’ (Ed: such as bin Laden) disappears, the Sino-US relationship becomes problematic.” The article concludesd that the foreign policy “hide our capabilities and bide our time” is very important and necessary when China is in the process of integrating into the international system, since the U.S. foreign policy is more ideologically based when no third party trouble makers are around. “To create a favorable international environment to develop our domestic economy, we should continue to hide our (Communist) ideology so as to minimize the differences (between the U.S. and China).”

[Editor: “Hide one’s capabilities and bide one’s time” (or “hide one’s ambitions and disguise one’s claws”) comes from a well-known Chinese historical novel, "The Three Kingdoms" based on real stories from the end of the Han Dynasty (25 AD-220 AD) to the Three Kingdoms era (220 AD- 280 AD) of Chinese history. The kings of the Three Kingdoms were Cao Cao, Liu Bei and Sun Quan. When Liu Bei was seeking refuge in Cao Cao’s territory, he was afraid that Cao Cao would kill him if he did not hide his ambition to unite the whole nation and become king. By working hard in his backyard vegetable garden every day and pretending to be cowardly, he successfully misled Cao Cao, who no long viewed Liu as a competitor. Liu Bei’s strategy was called “hide one’s ambitions and disguise one’s claws” (or “hide one’s capabilities and bide one’s time”).

Source: Study Times, November 7, 2011
http://www.studytimes.com.cn:9999/epaper/xxsb/html/2011/11/07/02/02_34.htm

Study Times, a magazine of the Chinese Communist Party Central Party School, recently published an article on how to define “Culture Superpower.” The article described three aspects of a culture superpower: (1) the nation must have relatively strong cultural charm, which is demonstrated by its self-confidence and attractiveness; (2) a culture superpower must be able to create, produce and distribute cultural elements, which include cultural innovation, an advanced culture industry and modern media; (3) a culture superpower must have a baseline indicator that is reflected by the quality of its people – their quality includes moral standards as well as scientific and artistic standards. All these aspects should have deep roots in the political, economic, and social lives of the people.

Source: Study Times, October 31, 2011
http://www.studytimes.com.cn:9999/epaper/xxsb/html/2011/10/31/03/03_46.htm

On November 5, 2011, over 50 scholars attended a forum in Beijing and had an in-depth discussion on how the Internet can assist China in its development of culture, how to meet Internet users’ growing demands, as well how to handle the ever increasing challenge of dealing with the new ideology and trends.

During the forum, an opening ceremony was held for the new office complex for “www.cntheory.com,” the website for the Chinese Communist Party school. The school officials hoped that the website would "further improve its contents, be persistent in giving accurate guidance on ideology and cultural trends, serve the study and research needs of various levels of party leaders and researchers, and serve the role of fostering the development of advanced socialist culture."

An analysis suggests that, by the end of first half of this year, the number of China’s Internet users reached 485 million.

Source: Xinhua, November 5, 2011
http://news.xinhuanet.com/2011-11/05/c_111147817.htm

On its 80th anniversary, Xinhua reported that it received 150 greetings from foreign government officials, organization leaders, and the renowned media from 70 countries and regions. Previously known as the “Red China News Agency” established on November 7, 1931, Xinhua has developed into a media group in multiple languages and media forms and has served as the official mouthpiece for the Chinese Communist Party.

Source: Xinhua, November 6, 2011
http://news.xinhuanet.com/2011-11/06/c_111148381.htm