Speech by H.E. Ambassador Liu Xiaoming at the Chinese New Year Reception for UK Education Partners: Lose No Time in Seizing Opportunities and Write a New Chapter of China-UK Educational Cooperation

The second letter A stands for achievements.

Last year was a year of bumper harvest for China-UK cultural and people-to-people exchanges. In particular, we have achieved fruitful outcomes in educational exchanges and cooperation.

The China-UK-BRI Countries Education Partnership Initiative was launched. This enables universities of our two countries to engage in cooperation on teaching and research in areas such as food security.

The University of Huddersfield joined hands with the East China University of Science and Technology to establish a Confucius Institute. Across the UK, 30 Confucius Institutes and 163 Confucius Classrooms have altogether enrolled more than 190,000 students.

There are now 344 joint education programmes and 27 joint education institutions, involving 139 British universities and 232 Chinese universities. About 80,000 students in China alone have benefited from these joint programmes.

Cooperation on research between Chinese and British universities has also thrived. In the past five years, the number of joint research outcomes has increased by 116%. China is now the third largest partner of the UK in scientific research.

By the end of last year, the China-UK Mathematic Teacher Exchange Programme have enabled the exchanges of 827 teachers, bringing benefits to hundreds of thousands of students in thousands of schools in our two countries.

The third letter T stands for trust.

Due to differences in cultural heritage and social system, China and the UK have unique features in our educational systems. Thanks to mutual respect and mutual trust, our educational exchanges and cooperation have thrived over the years.

We have been committed to the principle of non-interference in other countries' internal affairs. The educational exchanges and cooperation between China and the UK are aimed at promoting educational and social progress in our two countries. Such cooperation could also help enhance exchanges and mutual learning between the Eastern and Western civilisations. Our goals are open and transparent and there is no hidden agenda.

Here I would like to express my appreciation to you, leaders of British education who are committed to advancing open and inclusive educational exchanges and cooperation between China and the UK.

It is my hope that you will continue to work with your Chinese partners, respect each other, learn from each other and seek common ground despite differences. I hope you will join hands to build closer China-UK educational partnership, and contribute more positive energy to China-UK cultural and people-to-people exchanges.