The Embassy of China issued a statement on Tuesday hoping India maintains healthy and stable development of people-to-people contact and cultural exchanges between two countries. It hoped New Delhi will treat “Confucius Institutes and higher education cooperation in a fair and objective manner”. This comes as the government of India is reported to review Chinese language programmes across universities.
“Indian relevant parties can treat Confucius Institutes and China-India higher education cooperation in an objective and fair manner, avoid politicising normal cooperation and maintain healthy and stable development of China-India people-to-people and cultural exchanges,” it said.
It said that the Confucius Institutes have played an important role in promoting Chinese language teaching in India and China-India people-to-people and cultural exchanges.
Confucius Institutes are public educational partnerships between colleges and universities in China with those in other countries and deals in Chinese language teaching.
The Embassy statement further added that the demand for Chinese language teaching is expanding in India.
“China-India cooperation on Confucius Institute Project has been carried out for more than 10 years,” it stated.
The ministry of education will review the setting up of local chapters of the Confucius Institutes in association with seven local colleges and universities in the country. The move comes after security agencies alerted the education ministry to the growing Chinese influence in higher education in India.
The ministry also plans to review 54 Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) signed between India’s prestigious educational institutions such as the IITs, the NITs, among others, and Chinese institutions. A notification in this regard has already been issued to the Ministry of External Affairs and the University Grants Commission (UGC).
