Ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Italy, the Italian version of "Xi Jinping’s Classical Quotes" was launched in Rome, Italy on Thursday, and has been broadcast in Italian speaking countries and regions around the world.

The video series was broadcast and launched on the same day on Class Editori's television channels, apps, websites, and most influential commercial media group Mediaset. "Cinitalia," the Italia-China bilingual app of China Media Group (CMG), the Italian website and social platform are also broadcast the relevant contents.

Shen Haixiong, president of the CMG, and Fedele Confalonieri, chairman of Italian media group Mediaset, attended the launching ceremony.

As an important part of the cultural exchanges and mutual learning between China and Italy, this monographic work, created and translated by the CMG, has been translated into English, Japanese, Korean, Spanish and other languages in the past five months. It has reached more than 100 million overseas and won wide acclaim.

The series of works carefully selected famous quotes from ancient Chinese classics quoted by President Xi Jinping in his speeches, articles, and talks. Also, it vividly demonstrates President Xi Jinping's profound understanding of the fine traditional Chinese culture and his philosophy of drawing on the wisdom of governance.

In the 5,000 years of Chinese civilization, the Chinese people have accumulated profound observations and thoughts on human and nature, family and state, morality and law, Shen noted in his speech.

Shen also said that the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) put forward by President Xi Jinping in 2013 is increasingly supported and participated by the international community, including Italy.

Italian public opinion generally believes that, as the initiator of the BRI, the idea of President Xi's governance is a topic of great interest to Italian audiences. The launch of the Italian-version "Xi Jinping's Classical Quotes" undoubtedly provides local people with an intuitive window to appreciate the elegant demeanor and charm of President Xi, to better understand the concept of President Xi's governance and the feelings of the country and the world.

Fedele Confalonieri, chairman of Italian media group Mediaset, expressed that China and Italy were the starting and ending points of the ancient Silk Road respectively and had greatly contributed to the development and exchanges of the Silk Road. 

As Confalonieri said, China and Italy are the two countries that have best combined the historical experience of the Silk Road with the practice of modern development, while the BRI is the best inheritance of the Silk Road spirit. Also, the concept of "Xi Jinping's Classical Quotes," such as "The world belongs to the people", is also worth learning for Italians, Confalonieri added.