In recent years, China has been facing a more severe and complex international environment of public opinion, and the international community has been paying increasing attention to China. Under these circumstances, China must make all-around progress in its diplomatic cause, which should not be limited to official diplomacy between governments, but also involve civic diplomacy between people from different countries.

In order to achieve this goal, it is essential to establish and develop NGOs in the field of diplomacy. In the face of complex global competition, the influence of NGOs at all levels, including the state, the society and international relations, cannot be ignored. Our country should encourage social organizations to go out and let the world hear more of China's voice. It is understood now there are nearly 900,000 NGOs in China, covering areas such as poverty relief, health, education, environmental protection and climate change.

However, the proportion of foreign-related NGOs in China is less than 10 percent, which is very small, and the depth and breadth of foreign-related work also needs to be strengthened. The Chinese government should actively support and fund the development of foreign-related NGOs through various channels, so they can speak on behalf of China, spread Chinese cultural values and elaborate China's development path.

Furthermore, we should emphasize the guidance of public opinion in network diplomacy and cultivate citizens' habits of rational expression in cyberspace. With the rapid development of communication technology, the internet has become a tool for ordinary people to make their voices heard, so public opinion on the internet reflects public sentiment to a large extent. In this age of information, every decision, including diplomatic decisions, has to accept a test of legitimacy on the Internet.

In addition, many foreign research institutions, politicians and even ordinary people often analyze the views of Chinese people, evaluate the image of Chinese netizens and even the image of our country through China's network of public opinions. Therefore, we should exert the positive role of network public opinion and reduce its negative role as much as possible. This requires government departments, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to guide netizens to comprehensively and rationally understand the complexity of China's diplomatic situation. But fundamentally speaking, the problems of network public opinion can only be solved through the construction of the internet environment itself, and the government should only give proper guidance and supervision in this regard.

Moreover, we should encourage more Chinese experts, scholars and ordinary citizens to join the ranks of telling China's stories to the world. In recent years, although more and more Chinese specialists and academics have attended major international conferences and forums, they are still not as skilled at dealing with foreign media. In fact, compared with China's diplomatic needs, the influence they exert is still mostly very limited, so it is necessary to establish and consummate relevant incentive systems to encourage more scholars to go out.

Scholars should also collaborate to create a system of communication and dialogue with Chinese characteristics. Only by using expressions that can be heard and understood by the international community, can we create more paradigms of telling China's story well. For ordinary citizens, they should be motivated to use social media to show their daily life to the world. They best understand the situation on the grassroots level in China, making them the best witnesses of the great changes that have taken place over the past 40 years since reform and opening-up. For instance, Li Ziqi and her team successfully share the daily life of Chinese rural families through videos which have attracted great attention from foreigners online.

In short, under the current international situation which continues to undergo profound and complicated changes, we need more people to tell China's stories. Only in this way can we effectively influence international public opinion and win understanding and support for China's development from the international community.

Zhou Yue, a graduate from Anhui University, now works at Anhui Channel of ifeng.com.

Source: CHINA DAILY；Updated: 2021-08-25.