On the eve of the Belt and Road Forum to be held in Beijing, Tian Xuejun, the Chinese vice minister of education, said on Thursday that Mandarin has become one of the most important languages of communication between China and the countries involved in the One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative. Tian said increasing numbers of people in Belt and Road nations are learning the language, which has played a key role in boosting relations. “As of March, 137 Confucius Institutes and 131 Confucius Chinese-language study classes had been established in 53 Belt and Road countries, with more than 460,000 people in these countries studying Chinese,” he said. Read more
