On December 15, Zhou Zuyi, Secretary of the Fujian Provincial Party Committee and Director of the Standing Committee of the Fujian Provincial People's Congress, met with teachers and students from the Confucius Institute at Durban University of Technology in Fuzhou, aiming to further promote the development of the institute.
Zhao Long, Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee and Governor of Fujian province, presided over the meeting.
In his speech, Zhou Zuyi welcomed everyone to Fujian for the winter camp themed Tracing Chinese-style Modernization and briefly introduced the situation of Fujian Province. He pointed out that since the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and South Africa 25 years ago, the two countries have achieved a leap-forward development from partnership to strategic partnership and then to comprehensive strategic partnership. Fujian and South Africa have close economic, trade, and cultural contacts and cooperation. South Africa is the largest trading partner and KwaZulu-Natal Province is the first sister city for Fujian province in Africa. About 10,000 students have been cultivated since the establishment of the Confucius Institute by Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University and Durban University of Technology ten years ago. This year marks the tenth anniversary of President Xi Jinping's proposal to jointly build the Belt and Road Initiative and his friendly policy towards Africa. He also emphasized that the spirit of President Xi Jinping's reply should be taken as a guide to deepen the friendship between Fujian Province and KwaZulu-Natal Province, create a global model Confucius Institute, and contribute more to China-South Africa friendly cooperation. Zhou Zuyi hoped that the Confucius Institute could improve its level of education, adhere to openness and inclusiveness, strengthen its tradition and innovation, and enrich its educational content to achieve excellent results with distinctive characteristics. He also hoped that teachers and students of the institute could seize opportunities: study hard to play the role of communicators between Chinese and African cultures and that of promoters of exchanges and mutual learning of human civilizations.
Zhou Zuyi said that the hope of further deepening the friendship is in the people, the foundation is in the people and the future is in the youth. Both sides should continue to broaden their areas of cooperation, attract more South African friends to come to Fujian for study and life, and promote new cooperation between Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University and Durban University of Technology, and the exchange of sister cities to a new level. It is believed that through this visit, everyone will be able to know and understand Fujian more deeply, have a new understanding of the path of Chinese-style modernization, and strive to be the messenger of the inheritance and development of friendship between the two countries.
Scene of the meeting
Representatives from the Confucius Institute at Durban University of Technology in South Africa also made speeches. They expressed their great pleasure to have the opportunity to experience the great achievements of Chinese-style modernization and Fujian's vigorous development. They would work harder to learn Chinese language, history and culture to be messengers of friendship with greater contributions to promoting friendly cooperation between China and Africa.
Fujian provincial leaders Wu Xielin and Chang Bin attended the meeting. Wang Jiannan, Secretary of the Party Committee of FAFU, and Lan Siran, President of FAFU, also participated in the event.
Correspondant/Photogragher: Fujian Daily
Translators: Huang Jiazhen, International College
Dai Yijing, International College
