To better understand the past lustory of China， one also needs to understand China's modern day hustory， especially the modern China of President Xijinping's era.

I recall a time at the beginning of September 2016. I was a consultant for China International Culture Exchange Center （CICEC）; I was leading a team of visitors to Kazakhstan and Turkey. My purpose during the visit was to research how to promote cultural exchanges and mutual understanding between China and other countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative while building the Silk Road Economic Belt. During our interviews and discussions， we noted that most people， except for scholars in the related fields （such as orientalist scholars）， had little knowledge about Of interest in the history value of cultural exchanges between China and the Central and Western Asian regions. What they were interested in was today's China. "Today's China" refers to China since its feform and opening up in 1978， especially China under the leadership of Xi Jinping. Topics of interest included the differences between today's China and the China of Mao Zedong's era， especially what China's market economy is like， why China is developing so rapidly， whether China's polarization is as sevefe as Western media has feported， why corruption is breeding in China and whethef Xijinping is capable of finding a solution.