We hope to tear down walls, not erecting them.

DELEGATES to the Tenth 10+1 Media Cooperation Forum organized by China’s People’s Daily newspaper share their insights on the trends in traditional and new media in Chengdu. HANANEEL BORDEY @tribunephl_hana

CHENGDU CITY, China — This city’s new stature is probably the reason why People’s Daily decided to hold its annual 10+3 Media Cooperation Forum this year in the Sichuan capital, the better to highlight its newfound achievements.

Nearly 100 Journalists from Southeast Asia including those from Japan, Korea and China are participating. The Daily Tribune is the only Philippine media group invited this year.

Looking back at the history of the forum, one could see where it is heading. Believing that the trend of the times is to open up and cooperate, China looks at media as a bridge to carry out exchanges and cooperation while promoting understanding between peoples.

“Shared prosperity is within sight with the help of the media,” intoned Fang Jiangshan, deputy editor in chief of People’s Daily as he opened the forum at the grand ballroom of the sprawling Shangri-La Chengdu in the heart of the capital. “The 10th year is a good year to enter into a new phase. What is undeniable is that we will be worthy of our long glory.”

As one of the most fruitful cooperation mechanisms in Asia, the 10+3 media forum, he said, keeps up with the times and makes continuous progress, contributing greatly to regional development and prosperity, and to the cooperation among East Asian countries.

“The exchange and mutual understanding between mainstream media in China, Japan and South Korea are in line with the interests of all parties and the requirements of the era of building an East Asia community with a shared future,” Fang said.

The 10+3 Media Cooperation Forum was held for the first time in 2007. Between then and now, People’s Daily as the organizer, has been communicating with all the parties concerned under the guidelines of enhancing friendship, strengthening exchanges , promoting cooperation and striving to promote news and personnel exchanges. It has developed into a unique link and an important platform within the 10+3 mechanism and it has become a brand project for media exchange and cooperation within the 10+3 framework.

Established in 1948, People’s Daily is an organ of the Communist Party of China Central Committee ranked by UNESCO as one of the world’s top 10 newspapers in 1992. It is the largest, most influential newspaper in the mainland, published nationwide with a circulation of 3.4 million. Currently, it has more than 70 branches and bureaus all over the world.

People’s Daily has grown from a printed-only newspaper to a modern multi-media news group, distributing its news product from various platforms such as newspaper, magazine, website, television, radio, digital newsstand, mobile SMS, Weibo, We Chat and mobile application. The group now operates 28 newspapers and magazines, 29 websites, 200 Weibo and We Chat accounts, 18 mobile applications and 37 overseas social media accounts. The readership of the whole group reaches one billion.

Shared prosperity is within sight with the help of the media.

Helping People’s Daily in organizing the forum is the information office of the People’s government of Sichuan and the Sichuan Daily Press Group, the first party newspaper group in western China. The group runs 11 newspapers, four periodicals and more than 100 new media projects, with a total per-period circulation of 1.43 million on the average, covering over 110 million new media users.

Sichuan Daily, an official newspaper of the Sichuan provincial party committee, has been selected into the list of the “National Top 100 Newspapers” for three consecutive years.

Gan Lin, a member of the standing committee and head of the publicity department of the CPC Sichuan Provincial Committee, said the province of Sichuan is the embodiment of China’s great leap forward development.

“Every key strategy, every important change and every key leap are projected on these 486,000 square kilometers of land,” Gan said as he described Sichuan’s 70 years of journey.

“Go along with the motherland and resonate with the times,” he pointed out.

As an important transportation corridor connecting Central Asia, South Asia and Southeast Asia, Sichuan is also a forward position for inland opening-up and a strategic support for western development. The province has likewise recently actively integrated into the ambitious Belt and Road initiative which seeks to create a beautiful countryside they call “Land of Abundance.”

Established in 1948, People’s Daily is an organ of the Communist Party of China Central Committee ranked by UNESCO as one of the world’s top 10 newspapers in 1992.

National cooperation parks such as China-Germany, China-France, China-Italy, China-Korea and Singapore-Sichuan are now on the construction stage as well as a Business and Innovation Center for China-Europe Cooperation, building a high-level platform for opening up to the outside world.

Indeed, China has come a long way from taking care of its over 1.3 billion people to aspiring for an Asian community with a shared future. It has definitely awakened and has shed its cocoon of conservativeness ready to embrace that mantle of leadership for Asia.

As Fang emphasized in his speech at the forum, “We hope to tear down walls, not erecting them.”