Beijing, May 27, 2024, The Europe Today: Chinese President Xi Jinping has recently replied to letters from student representatives of the “Hundred Schools Project” of Chinese language education in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), encouraging them to master the language, understand China, and contribute to fostering the friendship between the two countries.
“I have read each letter from you,” Xi said in his reply. “From the lines and drawings, I felt all your love for Chinese culture and your expectations for the friendship between our countries.”
President Xi recalled that five years ago, he and UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan jointly launched the “Hundred Schools Project” to promote Chinese language education in the UAE. “Now, seeing that learning Chinese has become a new trend in the UAE and a group of young ambassadors for China-UAE exchanges, like you, have been cultivated, I am very pleased,” Xi remarked.
In their letters, the students expressed that China and the UAE have “held hands” for 40 years and hoped that the two countries would remain good friends. Xi noted that the Chinese people share this sentiment. “The youth represents the future of the China-UAE friendship,” Xi said, welcoming the students to visit China, see the pandas, climb the Great Wall, and study at Chinese universities when they grow up.
Xi also encouraged more UAE teenagers to learn Chinese and understand more about China, hoping that they and their Chinese counterparts could exchange ideas and learn from each other. He envisioned that these exchanges would plant the seeds of friendship and contribute to a brighter future for China-UAE relations.
In July 2019, witnessed by Xi and Sheikh Mohamed, then Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, the two countries signed a memorandum in Beijing, officially launching the “Hundred Schools Project” of Chinese language education in the UAE. Currently, 171 schools in the UAE offer Chinese language courses, with 71,000 students enrolled.
Recently, 40 elementary and middle school student representatives from two demonstration schools of the “Hundred Schools Project,” the Hamdan Bin Zayed School and the Yas School in the UAE, wrote letters to Xi in Chinese. They expressed their love for Chinese culture and their aspirations to be ambassadors of China-UAE friendship.
