Liú Gǔchāng
On July 13, 2004 the Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the People's Republic of China to the Russian Federation, Mr. Liu Guchang (刘古昌) gave a dinner in the PRC embassy honoring His Eminence Metropolitan Kyrill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, Chairman of the Department of External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate.
In the course of their conversation, the PRC ambassador informed Metropolitan Kyrill about the work done relating to the topics raised at their first meeting on January 30 of this year at St. Daniel's monastery. In particular, Liu Guchang noted, that in response to the Russian Orthodox Church's request expressed by the Chairman of the Department of External Church Relations a decision was made to eject entertainment institutions from the buildings of St. Nicholas Church and the Cathedral named in honor of the icon of the Theotokos, "Surety of Sinners", which remain intact in Shanghai. In the future the buildings will have a cultural purpose, relating to the history of Russia's presence in China.
St Nicholas Church
The Chinese side expressed readiness to cooperate in organizing Russian citizens' visits to Russian military burial places on the territory of the PRC, including visits by priests of the Russian Orthodox Church to serve memorial services for fallen soldiers.
Other topics relating to the meaning of the religious factor in the development of dialogue between the peoples of the two countries, church-state relations in Russia and China, as well as the state of inter-Orthodox, inter-Christian and inter-religious relations, in which the Russian Orthodox Church participates were also discussed.
Ambassador Liu Guchang expressed readiness to further develop fruitful cooperation with the Russian Orthodox Church, along the lines designated during the meeting.
Participating in the meeting were Chéng Guópíng (程国平), Minister Plenipotentiary of the PRC embassy in Moscow; counselor of the PRC embassy in the Russian Federation, Du Dewen, second secretary of the PRC embassy in the Russian Federation, Tiao Yanfang, and an associate of the Department of External Church Relations, D.I. Petrovsky.