During a late-night Q&A session with heads of international news agencies following the opening SPIEF meeting on June 18, Russian President Vladimir Putin was asked about the deepening humanitarian exchanges between China and Russia. “When I mentioned that some of my close relatives are studying Chinese, I was referring to my granddaughter, who has a teacher from Beijing and speaks fluently with her in Chinese,” Putin replied. “My daughter, back in the early 2000s, started proactively learning Chinese—just because she wanted to. She hired a teacher and studied.”
He then reported that over 50,000 Chinese students are studying in Russia, and more than the 21,000 Russian students who are studying in China, adding that universities in both nations enjoy direct contacts, further reinforcing ties and “contacts in all fields” between the two countries.
