The 2012 China-EU Year of Intercultural Dialogue opened recently in Brussels. Cai Wu, China’s Minister of Culture, spoke at the opening. “China and Europe both influence international affairs. Although there are differences in their political systems and cultures, dialogues and communication between different civilizations are conducive to removing misunderstanding and promoting convergence. China has held the China Culture Year in France, Italy, and other countries in the past."  Cai stated that for 2012 China planned to hold the China Culture Year in Germany and the China-EU Year of Intercultural Dialogue in Brussels. 

Source: Xinhua, February 2, 2012
http://news.xinhuanet.com/2012-02/02/c_122643361.htm

An opinion article published in People’s Daily asks that European leaders consider offering China what China needs in exchange for economic help from China. The article states, "Immediately after the Chinese New Year, European leaders started visiting China one after the other. The first was German Chancellor Merkel, then Herman Van Rompuy, President of the Council of the European Union. Jose Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission will follow. The speculation is that the suitcases they bring will contain long lists of requests for China’s help."  

The article suggests that "European leaders coming to China should not simply ask for China’s help; they should also think more about what China needs, what Europe can offer China, and what can they do for the long-term stability and development of Sino-European relations. As compared to Europe’s request for ‘economic’ help from China, China hopes to gain political respect from Europe. Even now, Europe still maintains an arms embargo on China and is not willing to admit China’s position as a market economy. On the one hand, the E.U. welcomes China to increase its investments in Europe. On the other hand, it also follows the media to politicize China’s investments. The ‘China economic threat’ theory is quite popular within the E.U. There are still many obstacles keeping Chinese enterprises from investing in Europe."
 
In closing, the author asks, "After all, what image does the E.U. want to have among the Chinese people? We hope European leaders will think again and give a wise answer with far-reaching impact."

Source: People’s Daily, February, 2, 2012
http://world.people.com.cn/GB/14549/16999697.html

Li Xiguang, a professor and director of the Tsinghua University International Center for Communication (TICC), published an article in the Chinese Communist Party’s Qiushi journal, warning of “long term and serious challenges” due to public opinion from the West creating an unfavorable environment for China.

Li quotes reports from the U.S. based Rand Corporation that laid out the U.S. strategies on cyberwars and global information infiltration. Li’s article said, “We must see that, after China became the world’s second largest economy with its comprehensive national strength continuously growing, the United States and other Western countries found out that when the growth of their hard power was insufficient, they needed to implement their soft power to make up for the relative weakness of their national power.” “They (western media) often hold a strange fear of a heterogeneous and powerful China. They often jeer at certain unavoidable incidents in China’s development and fault them as being the unavoidable consequences of China’s social system. Western media, with their deep-rooted ideological bias, plus their ‘loud voice’ in international communication, has seriously damaged China’s international image and harms China’s peaceful development.”

Source: Qiushi, February 1, 2012
http://www.qstheory.cn/zxdk/2012/201203/201201/t20120129_135976.htm