A prominent city planning and policy analyst spoke about western culture at the Development Research Center of the State Council(DRC), on June 4, and explained that his research showed that there are two cultural genes in western civilization - "the truth" and "human beings" – and that human beings can be categorized as "general people" and "a large number of people", with the former emphasizing equality, and the latter, freedom.

Hok-Lin Leung, whose topic was "Cultural genes in western countries' public policy", went on to point to four beliefs that are essential for public policy designers, namely, that tomorrow will come, tomorrow will be better than today, a better tomorrow can be gained through hard work, and that policy design and implementation contribute to a better tomorrow.

Leung also said that policy evaluation is the key to successful policy and that public policies must be correct in their premise, clear in their goals, effective, and get results, and concluded by recommending a popular software S-CAD for policy evaluation.

Personnel from the DRC's Departments of Techno-Economic Research and Macroeconomic Research raised some questions and spoke with Liang about difference between Chinese and western culture afterwards.

Leung is a professor and dean of City and Regional Planning Dep't at Queen's University, in Canada, and a consultant for Chinese government organizations, including the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Land and Resources. He signed copies of his book The Cultural DNA of Western Civilization, at the event, which lasted three hours.

A prominent city planning and policy analyst Hok-Lin Leung speaks about western culture at the DRC, on June 4.

A prominent city planning and policy analyst Hok-Lin Leung speaks about western culture at the DRC, on June 4.