Chinese Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang called for greater innovation and openness in international Chinese language education while delivering a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the 2025 World Chinese Language Conference in Beijing on Friday.

Highlighting President Xi Jinping's strong emphasis on international Chinese language education, Ding, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, recalled that Xi has stressed upholding tradition while fostering innovation, strengthening connectivity and integration, building broad consensus, and creating bridges for communication among languages, for mutual understanding, and for cultural exchanges.

Thanks to joint efforts over the years, international Chinese education has achieved fruitful outcomes, and Chinese language learning has been widely welcomed around the world, he said.

Looking ahead to the coming five years, the vice premier said that China's development will bring more opportunities to the rest of the world, and global demand for learning Chinese and understanding China will accordingly keep rising.

China, as the country where the Chinese language originates, will steadfastly support and facilitate Chinese language education worldwide, he added.

Ding put forward a four-point proposal to advance international Chinese language education.

First, innovation should be adhered to as a primary driving force for joint development and sharing of digital Chinese language resources to make learning more convenient and efficient.

Second, provision of services for development should be adhered to in keeping promoting integration of international Chinese education with vocational and professional education, thereby improving learners' practical language skills and proficiency.

Third, friendly exchanges should be advocated to provide more support for Chinese language learners to study in China, thus strengthening bonds between the Chinese people and other people around the world.

And fourth, openness and inclusiveness should be stuck to in efforts to enhance two-way exchanges between Chinese and other world languages, so as to advance co-existence and mutual learning among civilizations.

Prior to the opening ceremony, Ding toured a theme exhibition of the conference.

Themed "Innovation Leads, AI Empowers: Learning Chinese Without Borders," the three-day conference brings together around 2,000 participants, including government officials, experts, university leaders, and representatives of international organizations.