China News Service:

General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed the need to improve the strategy of educational opening up, and put equal emphasis on introducing overseas educational resources and going global, and that the brand building of "studying in China" should be vigorously promoted. How does the MOE view the situation of educational opening-up? What are your main considerations? Thank you.

Liu Zicheng:

I am glad to answer this question. Opening up and cooperation is the sure path to build China's strength in education. The CPC Central Committee, with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, has attached great importance to the opening- up of education. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, General Secretary Xi Jinping has announced on many major domestic and international occasions that China will continue to open up its educational sector and underlined that promoting education modernization requires consistent efforts to advance opening-up and enhancement of inclusiveness, mutual learning and interconnectivity between countries. In a speech delivered at the fifth group study session of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, General Secretary Xi Jinping again made important deployments on educational opening-up, providing fundamental guidance in this regard for a new era.

Under the arrangements and deployments of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, the MOE has actively advanced education exchanges and collaboration between China and other countries and made positive progress. The overall layout of China's educational opening-up has been consistently improved, the building of opening-up hubs has vigorously accelerated, and educational reform has constantly played a bigger role in advancing educational opening-up. China's participation in global educational governance has been continuously deepened, and remarkable achievements have been secured in Sino-foreign educational cooperation, as well as people-to-people communications. I will share with you some data. First, China has signed agreements for mutual recognition of academic qualifications and degrees with 58 countries and regions. Second, China has conducted Mandarin teaching in more than 180 countries and regions worldwide and, accumulatively, there are nearly 200 million people outside China studying and speaking Chinese. Third, more than 1.3 million Chinese students are studying in over 100 countries worldwide. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the number of returnees has accounted for more than 80% of those who studied abroad in the same period.

At present, the MOE is thoroughly studying and implementing the guiding principles of the speech delivered by General Secretary Xi Jinping at the fifth group study session of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee. In accordance with the strategic plans made by the central authorities, we will actively integrate into and serve the new development pattern, promote educational opening-up to a higher level with wider coverage and scope, and with more initiative and flexibility, and make positive contributions to building China into an major world education center with a strong influence. Thank you.