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China Seminars for Scholars and Leaders 

In the past year, IEF has co-sponsored academic seminars on issues related to China’s development, environmental conservation and the revival of Chinese culture.  Here are a few reports of IEF's involvement with these events.

Participation in the Fifth China Green Forum

IEF was invited to give a presentation at the Fifth Green China Forum, organized by China’s State Environmental Protection Administration. The Forum was part of the 2004 China Environment and Culture Festival, and was attended by 250 Chinese participants and 50 foreigners, including the Director General for the Environment of the European Commission, the former Chairman of the British Government’s Panel on Sustainable Development and former British Ambassador to the United Nations, some ambassadors and other delegates.

The Forum was opened by Mr Xie Zhenhua, China’s Minister for Environmental Protection. The Vice Minister for Environmental Protection, Mr. Pan Yue, as President of the Environmental Protection and Social Equity Association that sponsored the event, then gave an important speech on China’s environmental protection policy. This is the first year, he said, that the Forum deals with the concept of environmental culture, and he underlined that “we should guide the public to lead an environmentally friendly life that cares for others and focuses more on spiritual advancement”.

The IEF presentation, which ended with a quote of a Confucian Classics that made the opening lines of the next day’s China People’s Daily article, focused on the need of a “family-centered” environmental culture.

Seminar at the Great Hall of the People (March 23, 2005)

IEF held an important meeting at the Great Hall of the People on March 23, on the theme of “Chinese Culture and Harmonious Society”. Building a “harmonious society” has recently been set as a key objective for China by President Hu Jintao, and was a major focus of discussion during the annual meetings of the Chinese People’ National Congress and Political Consultative Conference that were held at the Great Hall of the People on March 1 – 14. Thus held a week later in the same location, our seminar was seen as a meaningful follow-up initiative.

Co-sponsored by the Research Institute for the Revival of Chinese Culture and the China Fan Art Academy, the seminar was attended by 120 important leaders and scholars, such as:   Mr. Bu He, former Vice Commissioner of the China National People’s Congress; Mr Hao Shengqi, former Deputy Secretary of the Advisory Committee of China’s Communist Party Central Committee;  Mr Liu Peizhi, former Vice Minister of Agriculture; Mr Huang Jingbo, former Governor of Qinghai Province; Mr Huang Huang, Former Party Secretary of Ningxia Province;  Prof. Jin Riguang, Deputy Director of the Committee on Nationalities and Religions of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (one of the highest ranking Korean-Chinese officials in China).

The IEF presentations, which introduce a family-based perspective on the ideal of harmonious society, were warmly welcomed by participants as expressing essential aspects of Chinese culture.

Seminar on the Revival of Chinese Culture (June 17-19, 2005)

IEF co-sponsored in Beijing an “International Seminar on Chinese Culture and the New Culture of the 21 st Century”, together with the Research Institute for the Revival of Chinese Culture, the Beijing Branch of the China Medicinal Information Academy, the Sino-American Book of Change Academy, and the China Science and Technology Information Institute.

The seminar was attended by 200 scholars, artists and researchers on Chinese culture. Mr. Hao Shengqi, former Deputy Secretary of the Advisory Committee of China’s Communist Party Central Committee, gave opening remarks. The IEF presentations focused on ‘The Consequences of the Sexual Revolution” and “Causes and resolution of Conflict”.

Conference with the China Confucius Foundation ( Beijing, August 5-6, 2005)

IEF co-sponsored in Beijing an international academic conference with the China Confucius Foundation on the theme of “Confucian “Forgiveness and Harmony” and World Peace”. The China Confucius Foundation is a government-sponsored organization aiming at reviving Confucianism in China.

Chinese leaders are promoting the ideal of a “harmonious society” in order to assure peaceful social change on the internal level, and the idea of a “peaceful rise of China” on the international diplomatic front. Thus, a conference on the Confucian thought of harmony is considered with interest both by the scholarly world and the political world in China.

The meeting was attended by 200 scholars, diplomats and government representatives. Well known Confucian scholars participated, such as Mr. Ren Ziyu, a scholar on world religions and a former Director of the National Library, Professor Zhang Liwen, the Director of the Institute of Confucian Studies of China People University, as well as several scholars from abroad.