At the book release, which was held at Peking University in September, she mentioned a visit to the United States that she made last year, where she found that many of the frequent media reports about China were reported with the absence of Chinese sources.

She was informed, following further discussions with local media insiders, that it's difficult to get access to Chinese scholars and officials for interviews and verification. So the US media has become accustomed to receiving secondhand information about China, collected from various sources-some reliable and others that may be flawed and biased.

The urgency to improve the lines of communication is also recognized by Wang Guoqing, the three-time spokesman for the CPPCC, the other major organ of the "two sessions".

Wang, as with Fu, sees the importance of understanding the demands of the international audience in order to raise the efficiency of communication.

He voiced concerns that it is difficult to change the way China is perceived by overseas observers because China's achievements and propositions are not properly explained.

Meanwhile, the Chinese should embrace interactions with those who have a prejudiced view of China, rather than avoiding them, according to Wang's words at the book release.

He thinks Fu's delivery and techniques are worth studying so as to remove such barriers.

In the view of Liu Binjie, director of the School of Journalism and Communication at Tsinghua University, every Chinese person is a representative of the nation's image, whose sincerity and behavior when interacting with people from various countries and regions accounts for their impressions of China.

Fu's book can be seen as a manual in this field-how to make China's voices heard, understood and, in the end, accepted, as well as how to generate mutual respect, according to Qiao Weibing, editor-in-chief of China Citic Press, the publisher of the book.

Yuan Ming, dean of Peking University's Yenching Academy and a friend of Fu for more than half a century, recalls a visit to Fu's office when she was serving as vice-foreign minister.

"Her desk was piled with documents and books and in the corner was a cot," Yuan says.

That sincerity and devotion for her work is indicated throughout the book.

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