On December 8, the China Public Relations Association hosted the 2018 China Public Relation Development Conference at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing. The theme of this conference was New Era, New Action: Global Practice of Chinese Public Relation Research. Liu Binjie, Director of the National People's Congress Education and Culture Committee and President of the China Public Relation Association, Guo Weimin, Deputy Director of the State Council Information Office, Marc Vinck, Belgian ambassador to China, Masood Khalid, Pakistani ambassador to China, and many other leaders and distinguished guests attended the meeting. Representatives from the public relation associations of the 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, as well as delegates from state ministries, universities, think tanks, public relation companies and media attended the meeting. The total attendance surpassed 200.
At the meeting, 40 Influential Public Relation Figures of the 40 Years of Opening-up and Reform was published. Prof. Wu Youfu from SISU was among the winners of this honor. Prof. Wu has been engaged in the teaching of public relation in colleges and universities for 30 years. The book Public Relation and Practice co-translated by him was awarded Excellent Publication Awards on Public Relation in China of the 1980s. He was among the earliest Ph.D. supervisors on public relation in China. He also established the National Joint Committee of Dean on Public Relations, co-introduced public relations into the General Catalogue of Undergraduate Majors of Universities by the Ministry of Education, and founded the only academic journal on public relation in mainland China, the collection of Public Relation Research. SISU in turn has become the only university in China providing public relations program for a bachelor's degree, a master's degree and a PhD degree and which leads the construction and development of public relations majors of universities all across China.
Associate Prof. Yang Chen, Head of Department of Public Relations at the SBM, received the certificate of honor on behalf of Prof. Wu.
