To implement the Party's spirit of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and President Xi Jinping's vision to improve China's international communication capabilities to tell China’s story appropriately, China Daily launched the first "Vision China – New Era New Thinking" program to innovate the narrative mode of the media both home and abroad, on Monday. 

As one of the most important international specialists on Chinese issues, CGTN anchor R. L. Kuhn was invited to share his 30 years of experiences on how to promote China's worldwide influence in a New Era.

In his speech, Kuhn explained China's New Era and explored new meanings of the concept. He said, "It is a game changer that reflects Xi's transformation of socialism with Chinese characteristics required by contemporary conditions and complexities. It is a conceptual lens with which to view the range of goals, objectives and strategies that compose Xi's way of thinking and the Party's new direction." 

He also pointed out the characteristics and challenges that China is facing on a new page of its history. "China is facing unprecedented and complex challenges both domestically and internationally. The New Era is characterized by dislocations and disruptions," he said.

The New Era not only brings China a great opportunity but also many challenges: Domestically, China faces the problems of corruption, slower growth, industrial overcapacity, endemic pollution, income disparity, social imbalances, social injustice, social service demands, interest groups blocking reform and its people’s rising expectations. Internationally, it now confronts regional conflicts, sluggish economies, volatile markets, trade protectionism, ethnic clashes, terrorism, geopolitical rivalries and territorial disputes.

Presenting a working picture of the past five or more years, Kuhn illustrated three primary principles and five frameworks of the New Era from the different perspectives of governance, economy, society and diplomacy. China's large-scale poverty alleviation project showed its people-orientated principle, which has always been a priority for national strategies. The second is the national rejuvenation and third is the Chinese Dream.

Under the leadership of President Xi, China has set the trajectory, in all vital areas, of the country’s domestic development and international engagement for the next 30-plus years, to 2050. In conclusion, Kuhn said, "When future historians reconstruct the long history of China, they will likely circle our years as an epochal period of transition and transformation."