The global cultural pattern is characterized by a strong West and weak East.

Since the 1990s, along with economic globalization, a great number of developing countries have been brought into the entire international economic order.

During political, economic and technological integration, Western cultures and values have been quickly spread into those developing countries, posing a threat to their cultural security.

Take China. In 2008, the overseas box office of Chinese films was quite good, but was still less than 3 percent of that of US films in the same year.

In China's book market, each year imported books make up 10 to 15 percent of the entire volume, whereas exports are less than 0.3 percent.

Despite its rich cultural resources, China has a relatively weak capacity of cultural transmission. Enhancing such capacity is a pragmatic approach to strengthen China's national cultural soft power.

China should positively engage in international cultural exchange, and endeavor to build branches of the Confucius Institute all over the world. China's embassies and consulates should take the initiative to launch a variety of cultural festivals, seminars, exhibitions and artist performances.

Culture should become a diplomatic supplement to economy and politics.

We should also make good use of the mass media, including newspapers, magazines, radios, TV stations and the Internet, to promote national culture globally and let the world better understand China's values system.

While striving for equal communication with cultural powers, China should also increase cultural exchanges with developing countries, especially those neighboring countries that have been heavily influenced by Chinese culture historically. Such cultural proximity has helped consolidate their friendships with China, and has contributed to the maintenance of regional interests.

In the future, China ought to launch more bilateral or multilateral cultural communication with foreign countries, showing the tolerance, confidence and honesty of a big country.