Prof. Mohamed Diaa Zain El-Abedeen, President of Ain Shams University, on Sunday, May 12, 2024, witnessed the closing ceremony and distribution of prizes to the winning Egyptian students in the final international Chinese language bridge competition at the university level in the Arab Republic of Egypt in its twenty-third session for the year 2024, held in the Arab Republic of Egypt.

The celebration was also attended by Ambassador Liao Liqiang, Ambassador of the People's Republic of China to the Arab Republic of Egypt, Representative of the People's Republic of China to the League of Arab States, Educational Advisor Luo Chunsheng, and Prof. Salwa Rashad, Dean of the Faculty of Al-Alsun, Prof. Nasser Abdel-Al, Director of the Confucius Institute at Ain Shams University and Vice Dean of the Faculty of Al-Alsun, and Prof. Mervat Ali, Head of the Chinese Language Department, and a number of professors and students.

In his speech, Prof. Mohamed Diaa Zain El-Abedeen emphasized that the Chinese language is one of the ancient languages in the world that has a long history and a bright culture that extends back thousands of years. Today, it is one of the most widespread languages in the world, spoken by nearly two billion people. It is also one of the six languages approved by the United Nations.

He added that we at Ain Shams University have been keen on teaching the Chinese language and literature since the 1950s through the Chinese Language Department at the Faculty of Ancient Languages. Since the founding of the Confucius Institute at the university, Ain Shams University has assumed a great responsibility in teaching Chinese language and culture, and opening horizons for cooperation with Chinese universities in all sectors of the human, technological and medical sciences.

The President of Ain Shams University stressed that Egyptian-Chinese relations are as old as the Chinese language, rooted in the depths of history, attested by cultural, scientific and commercial exchanges along the ancient Silk Road. Today, through the Belt and Maritime Silk Road project for the twenty-first century, relations between the two friendly countries have witnessed a tremendous boom in all political, economic, cultural, scientific and educational fields.

He added that this year and this month coincides with the Arab countries and China’s celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the founding of the Arab-Chinese Cooperation Forum, and this year also coincides with Egypt and China’s celebration of the tenth anniversary of the establishment of comprehensive strategic relations between Egypt and China, which have come to represent the ten golden years in the history of relations between the two friendly countries. The President of the University congratulated the Arab and Chinese peoples and the Egyptian and Chinese peoples on these two historic occasions, wishing these close relations more progress and prosperity and the two friendly peoples more progress and progress.

For his part, the Chinese ambassador praised the great role of Ain Shams University and thanked Prof. Mohamed Diaa for the efforts of him and Ain Shams University in supporting educational and scientific cooperation with Chinese universities in the field of medical technological sciences, languages and literature.

Prof. Nasser Abdel-Al explained that the preliminary Chinese language bridge competition was organized at Ain Shams University with complete success on the twenty-second of last April, and the winning contestants were promoted to the final competition that we are witnessing today.