(From left to right) Chas Freeman, former assistant secretary of defense for International Security Affairs, Stapleton Roy, former US ambassador to China, and James Sasser, also former ambassador to China, at a forum in Washington on Wednesday. Mao Li / for China Daily

WASHINGTON - Back in the early 1980s, when Zhou Youguang, along with a few others, asked Richard Solomon to translate the Encyclopedia Britannica into Chinese, it caught Solomon by surprise.

It was just a few years after Deng Xiaoping's historic visit to the United States in 1979 and also after China Daily, the country's first English newspaper, was established in 1981.

Solomon describes that time a period of "opening-up" (or kai fang as he said in perfect Mandarin) and it held very important meaning because the Western world knew very little about China then. It was time kaifang took place, he said.

Deng Xiaoping was dubbed the "architect of China's opening-up policy" in the early 1980s. Deng gained an international reputation after he was selected as Man of the Year by Time magazine in 1986.

Zhou served as a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and was one of the people who started China Daily. He returned to China from the US in 1949, one week after Shanghai was liberated. He gave up a luxurious life in New York City as a Wall Street banker. Zhou became a household name in China when he invented the Pinyin system, the Roman spelling system for the Chinese language.

It was his first interaction with China Daily, said Solomon, who was the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs from 1989 to 1992 as well as former US ambassador to the Philippines. He now heads the United States Institute of Peace.

"The men who established China Daily really wanted to open up the country and bring in information that is on the world-class basis," said Solomon.

"That decision (of translating the Encyclopedia Britannica) was made by Deng's approval," recalled Solomon, holding a dark green copy of the translated version at an event celebrating China Daily's 30th anniversary in Washington on Wednesday.

Solomon recalled that he proudly told his mother when the translation project was finished that his name was printed in a book that reached over 1.2 billion people.

But back then, most people still focused on China's Communist political system, Solomon said.

What surprised him was that "the political factor (in China) that would limit the translation was not very strong", he said.

Solomon last visited China about nine months ago. He saw changes in Chinese media citing a conversation with some local senior officials who said they have to take into account public opinion, which wasn't the case until recently. The Internet and other electronic media have given a voice to ordinary people.

"(In China) public leadership is now exposed to the public (because of new media)," said Solomon.

On June 1, China Daily turns 30 years old. The country's national English newspaper serves as a primary source for English-speaking readers in China and abroad. It has US, Hong Kong, Asian and Europe editions that target politicians, think tanks as well as business communities by providing first-hand information about China.

"China Daily makes a vital contribution to this essential task by enhancing understanding of contemporary Chinese realities among Americans. That has been important in facilitating cooperation," said Chas Freeman, former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia and former assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs. Freeman also served as President Richard Nixon's chief translator during Nixon's visit to China in 1972.

The US edition is unique by reporting on China-US relations - one of the most important relationships in the world today. Collaboration between the two countries are said to be crucial on many global issues, ranging from climate change to economic cooperation.

Kenneth Lieberthal, director of the John L. Thornton China Center at the Brookings Institution, said distrust has been one of the failures of the US-China relationship since the two established formal diplomatic relations more than 30 years ago.

"Both sides should seek to convey a more credible view of the real situation, which would make it more familiar and less unnerving, unsettling," said Lieberthal at China Daily's 30th anniversary.

Lieberthal foresees a heavy set of challenges for the paper's US edition because of this.

"One (is) to understand US perspectives, because those are what the readers bring to the table, and to tackle the array of issues that inform US readers views of China and China's intentions - don't shy away from them, take them on," he said.

The past 30 years have seen ups and downs in this bilateral relationship. Improving cross-cultural understanding has always been a challenge. Lieberthal suggested China Daily should convey and explain China's real concerns in ways that Americans can understand.

But he pointed out all newspapershave to always adhere to one basic but important rule in journalism: accuracy. If a story is not accurate, then it undermines the newspapers' credibility, he noted.

"I think if China Daily is on board to meet these difficult demands, it will expand its reach significantly in the United States. And over time, it can play potentially a unique role in building the trust between our two countries," Lieberthal said.

China Daily