China Radio celebrates 70th

A ceremony was held here on Saturday to celebrate the 70th founding anniversary of the state-run China Radio International (CRI), the country's only radio with world service. The event was attended by more than 700 people, including the country's major publicity officials, leaders of top news organizations, foreign diplomats and representatives of overseas listeners. Li Changchun, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, praised CRI's 70 years of service in a congratulation letter, urging the station to build a world first-rate broadcaster with increasing global influence. Li urged CRI to create favorable international opinions about China and constantly boost China's soft power by further enhancing its news coverage. Liu Yunshan, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and head of the Party's publicity department, said at the ceremony that CRI should further introduce China to the outside world with enhanced communications skills. The Beijing-based CRI was founded on December 3, 1941 in Yan'an, northwest China's Shaanxi province, the capital of the CPC from 1936 to 1948. The station now broadcasts to the world around the clock in 61 languages, the most among media worldwide. The radio also has television and mobile phone information service, as well as newspapers. The station broadcasts more than 3,000 hours of programs on a daily basis in 2011, and have received more than 3 million letters from overseas listeners in 2011.