Educational ties are blossoming

China has had good cooperation with Belt and Road countries in education, culture and think tanks, and looks to generate more of it during and after the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation on Sunday and Monday, officials said.

Tian Xuejun, vice-minister of education, said on Thursday that Mandarin is becoming one of the most important languages for communication between the people of China and their Belt and Road partners. It will play a critical role in strengthening the people-to-people bond between the two sides, he said.

"As of March, 137 Confucius Institutes and 131 Confucius Classrooms have been established in 53 Belt and Road countries, with more than 460,000 people in the countries having studied the Chinese language in 2016," he said at a news conference.