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stage, the possibility was raised that the campaign would be expanded to other spheres and made nationwide, which would affect the economic reform and the open-door policy, the campaign was gradually brought to an end in early 1984.24 In the meantime, "modernism" in art was discouraged after an intense debate.
Following a period of uncertainty, an air of relaxation emerged again and this air developed into a new policy to encourage freedom of artistic and literary creation. At the Fourth Congress of Writers held in early 1985, Hu Qili, a Politburo member and member of the secretariat, addressed the congress on behalf of the party central committee and called on the writers to write freely. In his speech, he claimed that **(artistic and literary) creation must be free.**
This policy of greater freedom was soon echoed in major literary journals. In 1986, this optimism even blossomed into talks of making strategies for cultural development. In an article in the Red Flag, Shanghai party secretary Rui Xingwen elaborated that socialist modernization should not be interpreted as being merely economic modernization: economic development must be accompanied by development in culture. He also advocated a more liberal approach to international arts exchanges.25 The position of Rui largely conformed with the efforts of artists and writers made before and the publication of this article showed that a new atmosphere of relaxation over cultural activities, started by Hu's speech, was still in place.
American attitudes
I
In contrast with the situation in China, the government of the United States has much weaker control over political and cultural developments. An administration cannot influence domestic cultural development by direct or political means. Nevertheless, the U.S. government does exercise some control over its external cultural relations, through its handling of bilateral relationships with specific countries and through the USIA, an agency of the executive branch of the U.S. government which shoulders the responsibility for promoting American interests by cultural, educational, and informational exchanges. The government is also able to influence non-government organizations active in cultural exchanges to act along the same lines as the government pursues.
Since 1949, cultural exchanges as a foreign policy instrument in