On October 28, Ambassador Liu Xiaoming called on Mr. Michael Gove, the British Secretary of State for Education. He was accompanied by Minister Counsellor Tian Xiaogang of the Education Section and others.

Ambassador Liu congratulated Mr. Gove on his appointment as Secretary of State for Education and hoped that his visit to China next month accompanying Prime Minister David Cameron and his attendance at the Fifth China-UK Ministerial Education Summit would be successful. Ambassador Liu briefed the Secretary of State on China’s mid and long term plan on the reform and development of education, stressing that the Chinese side attaches great importance to China-UK educational cooperation. There are already nearly 100,000 Chinese students studying in UK, constituting the third largest group of foreign students in British universities and colleges and representing a huge potential for educational cooperation between the two countries. With the rapid development of mandarin teaching in UK, the two sides have smooth cooperation in Confucius Institutes and Confucius Classrooms. The Chinese side hopes that more British students will study in China and is ready to further enhance its exchanges and cooperation with UK in the fields of vocational and technical education, etc.

Ambassador Liu hoped that Mr. Gove will have an opportunity to visit the inland provinces of China to get a full picture of the country, promote the tripartite cooperation among excellent British secondary schools, the economically advanced coastal areas in China and the country’s underdeveloped western region and strengthen the bilateral exchanges and cooperation in the field of basic education.

Mr. Gove thanked Ambassador Liu for his visit. He said that with its rapid economic development, China is playing an increasingly important role in the world. The British coalition government attaches great importance to the relations with China and is ready to deepen the cooperation between the two countries in various fields and enhance the mutual understanding between the two peoples. He is looking forward to the visit to China and hopes to thoroughly learn about the current development of education in China through meetings and visits to schools, particularly the mathematic and scientific education and examination in primary and secondary schools, and to explore the possibility of deepening the comprehensive cooperation in education between the two sides. He also hopes to have an opportunity to visit an inland province of China in the future. Mr. Gove also introduced the policies of the British government to encourage schools to expand international exchanges and cooperation and to support students in learning foreign languages, in particular mandarin, and expressed that the British government expects to welcome more Chinese students to UK.