Q: In developing countries, people are usually worried that after opening up, Western culture will have a negative impact on the social life and moral education. How does China view the impact of Western culture? How can China use its splendid national culture to educate minors?

A: To be frank, opening up has provided China with a door to the outside world, which is good for us to better learn about advanced science, technology and culture. The rapid development of new media, such as the Internet, and all kinds of cultural and recreational places has expanded the fields of knowledge for Chinese people and enriched our cultural lives. Certainly, the opening of the door to the West is inevitably followed with some harmful information, such as pornography, violence, gambling and superstitions, creating a negative influence on the growth of China's youth that can't be trifled with.

The youth is the future of China, and we have always attached much importance to their moral education as well as their traditional culture education. There are now about 367 million people under the age of 18 in China. On the whole, their moral condition is good. But with some new problems in the moral development of minors, we should think the situation over carefully and take responsive measures.

Taking into consideration the characteristics of growth of minors' body and mind, we have focused on three aspects -- school education, family education and social education -- which are ascertained by six measures.

First, primary and middle schools have strengthened the moral education and improved the teaching methods of moral character cultivation and moral education; framed students' rules and regulations, which clearly stipulate and perfect the minors' code of conduct; and reduced the students' burden of school work while organizing all kinds of extra-curricular activities to cultivate creativity and discipline.

Second, the launching of good programs, with youth-focused television channels as the key, enriches children's cultural lives. CCTV and provincial TV stations have started young channels to broadcast a series of programs and have launched special programs in accordance with children's tastes, combining knowledge, entertainment and educational factors.

Third, various patriotic educational bases have been brought into full play with regard to the moral education of the minors, and groups of primary and middle school students can visit those places for free.

Fourth, much importance is made of China's national festivals and traditional festivals, anniversaries of important figures and events, as well as special occasions such as minors entering school or joining the Communist Youth League, prizing all kinds of celebratory or commemorative activities in order to guide minors to carry forward the national spirit, build up patriotism and improve moral standard.

Fifth, daily supervision over Internet bars is strengthened, strictly carrying out such measures as the ban of Internet bars near schools and forbidding minors to visit commercial Internet bars.

Sixth, supervision over the cultural market is strengthened. This includes clamping down the market of illegal publications; capturing and intercepting publications that spread pornography, murder, violence, feudal superstition and pseudo-science; investigating and dealing accordingly with video game software with horrific and barbaric content, as well as toys and decorations that propagate pornography and violence; and creating a sound social cultural environment for the healthy growth of minors.

The lives of minors in modern society have different characteristics than ever before, and therefore, we will increasingly improve their qualities and cultivate their insight in an open social environment against the backdrop of internationalization, building a sound environment in which to mature.