Translation. Region: Russian Federal

Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian – People’s Republic of China in Russian –

Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News

ASTANA, June 14 (Xinhua) — Young people are the hope for the future. In recent years, cooperation between China and Central Asian countries has rapidly expanded and deepened, with a series of key initiatives promoting the development of the younger generation, strengthening mutual understanding between peoples, and working for the long term.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has responded to letters from Central Asian students studying in China, encouraging them to be ambassadors of friendship and bridges of cooperation, supported joint Chinese-Kazakh universities, strengthened exchanges between young generations, encouraged mutual understanding, and promoted the joint development of the Lu Ban Workshops between China and Central Asian countries, opening the way to a brighter future for more and more young people from the region. The attention and care of the Chinese President have inspired young people to make new contributions to building a closer community with a shared future for China and Central Asia, and filled their common development and prosperity with youthful energy.

CHAIRMAN XI JINPING’S ORDER

“President Xi Jinping told us: be worthy ambassadors of friendship and bridges of cooperation between China and Central Asia. This is his order for us and at the same time a sign of trust,” young Turkmen Rakhman Bayramdurdyev recalls with excitement how he received a reply letter from Chinese President Xi Jinping two years ago.

In 2023, Rahman, who was then a graduate student at the China University of Petroleum (Beijing), wrote a collective letter to the Chinese President along with his comrades from Central Asian countries. The young people shared their impressions of studying and living in China, expressed their desire to learn, strengthen cooperation, and contribute to building a community with a common future for China and Central Asia.

“I remember my classmates and I were very excited when we received a response from Chairman Xi Jinping!” says Rahman.

Rahman began his student life at the China University of Petroleum back in 2010. Over the course of 13 years, the young man successively completed undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate programs. At the time of receiving the letter from Xi Jinping, he was preparing to defend his dissertation and thinking about his future after graduation.

“The friendship between China and Central Asian countries should be developed and passed on from generation to generation by more and more determined and active young people. You are not only witnesses and beneficiaries of the relations between China and Central Asia, but also their creators and disseminators,” these warm and encouraging words of the PRC leader strengthened Rahman’s determination to become an ambassador of China and Central Asian culture.

The young man decided to stay in China and became an employee of the Institute of International Education of the China University of Petroleum /Beijing/. “I want to share my experience with other students from Central Asia and other countries, help them get to know China and understand it better,” he says.

“I am always available,” is how Rahman describes his nearly two-year tenure at the institute. He helps new international students overcome language barriers and cope with everyday difficulties, schedules classes, and monitors exams and academic performance. In this intense but fulfilling job, Rahman has witnessed the growth and development of international students in China and gained a deeper understanding of the friendly relations between China and Central Asia.

“Studying and living in China over the years has completely changed me, shaped me,” says Rahman.

According to Yu Donghai, deputy director of the Institute of International Education at China University of Petroleum (Beijing), the university maintains extensive cooperation with educational institutions in Central Asian countries. Over the past twenty years, more than two thousand students from the region have studied here, and they now play an active role in strengthening exchanges and cooperation between China and Central Asian countries in many areas.

June is graduation time. One of the authors of the letter to President Xi Jinping, student Mohammed Polat, is about to complete an unforgettable education in China. In eight years, he went from a preparatory course where he did not speak a word of Chinese to a master’s degree in business management and fluency in the language. “Studying in China changed my life,” he says with sincere gratitude.

The 24-year-old Kazakh is looking forward to the second China-Central Asia summit. He hopes that more young people from Central Asia will be able to come to China to study, and Chinese companies will be able to work more actively in the region. “I am ready to contribute to building a bridge of friendship,” says Mukhammed.

PROMOTING FRIENDSHIP DEVELOPMENT

In recent years, in the context of sustainable development of cooperation with China in all areas, interest in this country and its language has been growing in Central Asian countries. “I decided to study Chinese because I consider it the language of the future,” Yerasyl Mukhtaruly, a student at the Kazakhstan branch of Beijing Language and Culture University, told Xinhua.

In July 2024, when Xi Jinping visited Kazakhstan, he and the country’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev attended the opening ceremony of the Kazakhstan branch of Beijing Language and Culture University. Astana International University President Serik Irsaliev still remembers that day well.

According to him, the attention of the heads of the two states is “very high responsibility”. “This year, about 100 of our students are completing their studies at the branch on language courses. After that, they will take the HSK exam and determine their future profession,” said S. Irsaliev.

Yerasyl, 20, is one of the first students at the branch. He studied Chinese for almost nine months in preparatory courses. It was difficult at first, but the young man increasingly felt the depth of Chinese culture and understood better what he was striving for in life.

The student recalls that at first he often made mistakes in tones, and the countless hieroglyphs were difficult to remember. “I have to spend more than an hour or even two hours every day studying hieroglyphs. I have to write them every day. Speaking practice also helps,” he said, adding that he is gradually overcoming difficulties.

In the future, he plans to work in the fields of translation, international business or diplomacy. “I believe that everyone who studies Chinese contributes to the development of friendship between Kazakhstan and China,” Yerasyl noted.

An unusual relic is kept behind glass in the Kazakhstan branch of Beijing Language and Culture University: a copy of President K.-Zh. Tokayev’s student ID card, which he obtained when he briefly studied abroad at Beijing Language and Culture University. Local students are very proud to have studied at the same university as the head of state. “President Tokayev also studied at Beijing Language and Culture University, which is of particular importance to us,” said Alina Abildinova, who is attending preparatory language courses.

She told Xinhua that she loves Chinese tea culture and hopes to have the opportunity to study and work in China in the future. “Modern China can provide young people with various opportunities, allowing us to confidently move into the future,” she said.

A VALUABLE PRACTICE OPPORTUNITY

In the training lab of Lu Ban’s Workshop in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, about ten local students are working intently with measuring instruments under the guidance of a teacher. This is the “youngest” Lu Ban Workshop in Central Asia – it opened in October last year.

Last July, Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov in Astana during the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit. During the meeting, he stressed that the two sides should make full use of platforms such as the Center for Traditional Chinese Medicine, the Center for Chinese Culture, and the Lu Ban Workshop in Kyrgyzstan to cultivate new successors to the Chinese-Kyrgyz friendly cooperation.

The workshop was created through the joint efforts of the Zhejiang Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower and the Kyrgyz State Technical University named after I. Razzakov. Over the course of more than six months of its operation, more than four thousand students have received technical training here.

Head of Lu Ban Workshop Akylbek Chymyrov told Xinhua that the country is experiencing a serious shortage of engineering personnel in areas such as hydropower, electrical engineering, road and bridge construction. At the same time, infrastructure projects for the construction of hydroelectric power plants, highways are being actively implemented, and construction of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway has begun. “The main advantage is that we are training highly qualified personnel together with our Chinese partners. Students receive modern knowledge, study modern technologies and standards,” he says.

“Here we learn how to use the latest surveying instruments and equipment, and we also study drone technologies, which is new and very interesting for us,” said Aalybek uulu Erbol, a second-year student at the Kyrgyz State Technical University named after I. Razzakov, studying geodesy. According to him, the technical equipment makes the workshop especially attractive, which is rare at other universities. “This practical opportunity is very valuable for us,” he emphasized.

The Chinese leader has always paid great attention and supported the establishment of “Lu Ban Workshops” in the Central Asian countries. In May 2023, in his keynote speech at the China-Central Asia Summit, he especially noted the need to increase the number of “Lu Ban Workshops” in the Central Asian states. To date, the “Lu Ban Workshop” in Tajikistan has been successfully operating for more than two years, preparations are underway to open a second workshop in Kazakhstan, and the first workshop in Uzbekistan was opened last year. These projects are actively promoted throughout Central Asia and contribute to the training of personnel for the socio-economic development and modernization of the countries in the region.

“Lu Ban Workshop”, established by the East Kazakhstan Technical University named after D. Serikbayev jointly with the Tianjin Vocational Institute, began operations in December 2023 and became the first in Kazakhstan. In recent years, Chinese car brands have become increasingly popular in Kazakhstan. Taking into account the future need for specialists in the automotive industry, maintenance and repair, the Kazakh side chose the automotive industry as the main direction of training in this workshop.

“Lu Ban’s Workshop gives students the opportunity to immediately move from theory to practice,” notes Anasyr Mirashev, head of the workshop at the D. Serikbayev East Kazakhstan Technical University. “The teacher can demonstrate everything visually, and the students can do all the work with their own hands. This gives them great opportunities.”

“I chose Lu Ban’s Workshop because it is the most promising project today,” says second-year master’s student Ilyas Isakanov. He said that thanks to training at the workshop, he became familiar with the latest technologies in the automotive industry and hopes to use the knowledge he gained in the future to help more people. –0–