A project, that would see the Chinese government provide 100
annual scholarships to young EU students, kicked off in Brussels on
March 20, according to China Youth Daily.
Liu Wanliang, an official with China's mission to the European
Union, said the program was fomented last September during the 9th
China-EU Summit meeting in Helsinki when both sides agreed to
deepen bilateral educational exchanges.
Liu said that the project specifically targets EU students under
35 years of age, seeking to study at university level. Once their
applications are successful, they will receive a full state
scholarship to study the language and culture of China. The program
will stretch from 2007 to 2011, encompassing 115 Chinese
universities.
Detailed information, including application procedures,
application form and a short list of universities, are available at
the official website of China's Mission to the European Union (http://www.chinamission.be/eng/ofzz/).
Official statistics put the number of people studying Chinese
abroad at 30 million from over 100 countries. Over 2,500
universities now teach Chinese with tuition even spreading down
into primary and secondary education in countries such as Britain,
Thailand and Indonesia. Over?1 million South Korean and
Japanese are studying Chinese. It is estimated that by 2010, about
100 million people in the world will learn Chinese with at least 4
million teachers needing to be trained.
(China.org.cn by Zhou Jing, March 21, 2007)
