China has established its first Confucius Institute on the air at China Radio International (CRI), offering Chinese language education in 38 foreign languages worldwide.
The Confucius Institute, jointly set up by the Office of Chinese Language Council International, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT), Confucius Institute headquarters and CRI, is to meet surging overseas demand to learn the Chinese language, according to the Vice Minister of Education, Zhang Xinsheng.
The institute will offer Chinese teaching programmes by wireless broadcasting and online broadcasting based on the uniform study materials compiled by the Office of Chinese Language Council International to learners worldwide, said Geng Qingqing, a CRI official.
Statistics from the Ministry of Education show that currently 30 million people overseas are learning Chinese, and the figure may hit 100 million by 2010.
Apart from the broadcast institute, the country also plans to set up a television channel and an online database.
(Source: Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union/R Netherlands Network Weblog)