China asks India to treat Confucius Institutes teaching Mandarin in ‘fair manner’ amid review2Photo© hindustantimes.com

China asks India to treat Confucius Institutes teaching Mandarin in ‘fair manner’ amid review

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The Embassy of China on Tuesday asked India to treat Confucius Institutes and higher education cooperation between both the countries in an “objective and fair manner”. The Confucius Institute programme – administered by the Chinese government agency Hanban – teaches Mandarin and runs hundreds of those institutes abroad.

The Ministry of Education will review the Confucius Institutes in India and others that offer Chinese language training on Tuesday, The Hindu reported. “The Ministry of Human Resource Development and University Grants Commission are in the process of reviewing the work being done by higher education institutions as part of agreements/educational arrangements with foreign institutions,” said a letter sent on July 29. “As part of this process we would like to review the activities undertaken by the Confucius Centre in your university/ institution affiliated to your university.”

In a statement, the Chinese embassy said Confucius Institutes have played an important role in teaching Mandarin and that this has been recognised by the Indian education community. “We hope 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 added.