Confucius Institutes promote UNESCO vision

By establishing 548 Confucius Institutes and 1193 Confucius Classrooms in 154 countries and regions, China has taken the initiative to spread the Chinese language and culture overseas in a peaceful and mutually beneficial way. And in so doing, China has used its limited resources to put the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity into practice.

The teaching of the Chinese language and culture promotes global diversity and is an important channel for advancing common development that benefits China as well as the host countries. It also provides other developing countries with an example of how to promote their own cultures and languages worldwide by using limited resources.

Understandably, different countries have different views on Confucius Institutes, and some have used the so-called cultural expansion, cultural invasion and cultural threat theory in an attempt to mislead global public opinion, although many have commended China's efforts. Perhaps a better understanding of China's efforts to promote its language and culture would help other countries to see the Confucius Institutes in a better light.