On June 9, the Counsellors’ Lecture, co-sponsored by the COSC Public Policy Research Center and Xinhuanet Thinker, was inaugurated at the All Media Center of Xinhuanet. COSC officials, Qian Yingyi, Counsellor of the State Council, Li Lie, former Counsellor of the State Council and the Principal of the Second Experimental Primary School Group, and Tian Shubin, Chairman and President of the Xinhuanet Company, attended the inauguration. The event was moderated by Liu Juan, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Xinhuanet.

The Counsellor’s Lecture in Session

The Counsellor’s Lecture is a speech and dialogue program co-sponsored by the COSC Public Policy Research Center and Xinhuanet Thinker. The Lecture focuses on current affairs and issues related to people’s life. It convenes every two months and brings together counsellors of the State Council, CCICH researchers, COSC research fellows as well as counsellors of local governments and researchers of local culture and history institutes to discuss national laws, policies, events, plans, public opinions and people’s livelihoods and offer authoritative analyses.

Tian Shubin, Chairman and President of the Xinhuanet Company, said in his opening address that the partnership between COSC, a government advisory body, and Thinker, a media think tank, is a perfect model of cooperation between knowledge generation and idea dissemination platforms. The inauguration of the Counsellor’s Lecture is the starting point for exploring mechanisms for consolidating intellectual resources and collaborating between high-level think tanks.

Tian Shubin presents Qian Yingyi his cartoon portrait.

Qian Yingyi, Counsellor of the State Council and Dean of Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management, made a keynote speech and participated in the dialogue on “innovative talent education”. Innovation is the basis of social development and the cornerstone of national development. Talents drive reform and innovation. It is more important to educate innovative talents in the new era. In his keynote address, Qian analyzed the importance of innovative talents education and the reason for the lack of innovative talents in China. He believes that innovative talent education must go beyond knowledge acquisition. There are three important factors for cultivating innovative talents: basic knowledge, curiosity and values.

Qian Yingyi, Counsellor of the State Council and Dean of Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management, gave a keynote speech.

Li Lie, one of the commentators, spoke about the weak links in cultivating innovative talents in China’s primary education. She used the bamboo analogy to show that natural laws must be followed in cultivating innovative talents. Schools, she said, must give more emphasis on the character of students than knowledge teaching.

Li Lie, former Counsellor of the State Council and the Principal of the Second Experimental Primary School Group, made comments.

During the dialogue, Qian Yingyi had in-depth talks with Li Lie and Yang Dongping and answered questions from the audience. The two experts shared their perspectives on talent education and educational reform, from primary to higher education. Qian spoke about the gap between China and India in cultivating innovative talents. When answering the question on education reform, he used the example of new course “critical thinking and moral reasoning” of Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management . He said that one important aspect of critical thinking is about asking questions, which is a weakness for Chinese students. From her experience in primary education, Li Lie argued that “not losing on the start line” is, in essence, what education entails. Yet it is never only about knowledge preparation. It should also include efforts to foster curiosity. Yang Dongping believes that character building should be placed at the center of education to help students maximize their own value.

The Counsellor’s Lecture will later invite respected and accomplished government counsellors and researchers of culture and history institutes to share thoughts and ideas.