It is not often that two heads of state get together to sponsor an educational event between their nations. But President Xi Jinping and President Putin did just that at their recent summit in Beijing, inaugurating the “China-Russia Years of Education”. This is meant to solidify the relationship between the two nations for one or two more generations and more. Putin called education “crucial for individual development,” and Xi underlined it as “a noble cause that benefits the present and future generations.” Both have placed education as a foundation of their national development plans.
Presently there are around 60,000 Chinese students studying in Russia and about 21,000 students studying in China. In addition, there are around 100,000 Russian students studying Chinese. There are over 150 joint educational programs and institutions established for this purpose. The partnership is geared toward realizing national priorities and scientific development and encompasses language and literature, science and technology, digital economy, and energy science, as both embrace the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the artificial intelligence (AI) era.
The collaborative Shenzhen MSU-BIT University in south China, which was established ten years ago between Moscow State University and the Beijing Institute of Technology, is a flagship model of institutional synergy, with over 4,400 enrolled students and partnerships with more than 110 Chinese and Russian institutions. It exemplifies what bilateral educational cooperation can achieve, deepening China-Russia educational cooperation and enhancing friendship between the two peoples.
There is a “Russian language boom” in Chinese middle schools and an expanding network of sister-school relationships. The China-Russia Secondary School Alliance alone links more than 140 middle schools. In April, six schools in Nanjing in east China established sister-school relationships with counterparts in Pushkino in Russia. It is not an exchange of curriculum materials alone, they are cultivating the interpersonal foundations upon which future bilateral relations will rest.
As both nations are facing pressures from the West which is attempting to stifle the economic and technological development of both, the educational collaboration is a crucial element in bringing the best in both countries to bear on each one’s development. And those in the classroom today will be the scientists and engineers, indeed the political elites, of both nations tomorrow, with a clear understanding of the importance of the two countries’ mutual relationship.