CNR:

General Secretary Xi Jinping has put forward that the popularization of science and sci-tech innovation are of equal importance. What progress has China made in improving the science literacy of the people? What are the problems that need to be addressed? What is the focus of our future works? Thank you.

Zhang Yuzhuo:

Thank you for your questions. Over the past decade, thanks to the popularization of science, China has seen significant improvement in the proportion of scientifically literate Chinese citizens. During the 13th Five-Year Plan period, in 2015, the proportion of scientifically literate Chinese citizens was 6.2%. In 2020, the proportion increased to 10.56%. The uptick was mainly caused by the improvement in organizing activities to help people learn more about science. We built an organizational system for popularizing science in which provincial-level authorities integrated policies and working mechanisms, municipal-level authorities established centers for distributing resources, and county-level authorities put measures into practice. Based on the new era civilization practice centers and community service centers, we have established a system for popularizing science at the community level which is carried out through the means of voluntary service. Our organization system covers six aspects, including the brand, platform, mechanism, team, reform, and fronts. China Science Communication is just one of our brand products, which provides online and offline services to help people learn more about science. Files on the China Science Communication platform contained a total of 53 terabytes of data, which can be promoted through 715 distribution channels of all kinds. The total visits of the platform have reached 41.6 billion so far. It has become the most authoritative popular-science platform in the country and also played an important role in epidemic prevention and control works.

In addition, the modern system of science and technology museums with Chinese characteristics has developed rapidly. The number of brick-and-mortar science and technology museums has grown from 118 in 2012 to 408 at present. A noteworthy highlight is our itinerant science and technology exhibition program, an initiative with Chinese characteristics aiming to promote the joint development and sharing of popular science resources and enhance the social benefits of these resources. The program has so far been carried out at 4,944 stops, and the mileage of popular science caravans used for such exhibitions has exceeded 50 million kilometers. Moreover, 1,112 science and technology museums have been built in rural middle schools. The number of users of China's digital science and technology museums has reached more than 15 million. The modern system of science and technology museums has so far served more than 850 million people offline. We have also developed a "Science Facts" platform to refute misinformation about science together with relevant ministries and committees, mobilized 125 well-known domestic institutions to launch the China Alliance for Scientific Literacy, and successfully encouraged 2.13 million science and technology workers to register as science and technology volunteers. International cooperation has also deepened. In line with the spirit of the congratulatory message of General Secretary Xi Jinping to the first World Conference on Science Literacy in 2018, which has now been held for four editions, we have pushed forward the preparations for the establishment of the World Organization for Science Literacy and further developed such initiatives as the Belt and Road Teenager Maker Camp.

Nonetheless, as you just noted, there is still a significant imbalance in science literacy between urban and rural areas and among different regions, and we need to make persistent efforts. First, primarily led by the National Action Plan for Science Literacy, we will strengthen coordination among different ministries and committees and get the whole society more involved so that everyone will be popularizing science for the benefit of all. Second, we will guide the flow of popular science resources and services in favor of less developed areas, especially the western regions. We will vigorously carry out science and technology initiatives in Xinjiang and Tibet to aid their development and bring prosperity to border areas and their residents to narrow the gap among regions. Third, we will continue to promote popular science programs in rural areas as part of the efforts to achieve rural vitalization. Focusing on members of the village branches of the Party and villagers' committees as well as high-caliber farmers, we will push for a general improvement in the science literacy of rural residents. We will further carry out volunteer science and technology service initiatives to help address the imbalance between urban and rural development.

Thank you.