Exposure to China will ‘enrich our knowledge’

House education committee head Pavlos Mylonas said on Monday that Cyprus and China have much to gain from learning about each other’s cultures.

Mylonas and other Cypriot MPs met with China Academy of Social Sciences president Gao Shang and other representatives where they discussed ways of deepening cooperation between the two countries.

Welcoming the Chinese delegation to parliament, Mylonas said – according to the Cyprus News Agency – that Europeans, particularly Cyprus and Greece, have much to learn about China’s culture. He added that it is a good opportunity to understand the common values of humanity and democracy.

“There’s a need to learn Chinese culture, to see what they’re doing in primary and secondary school education, to enrich our knowledge, and open our horizons,” he told reporters after the meeting.

The MP also said that cooperation with China will continue, describing it as a “massive” country from which Cyprus has much to learn.

Mylonas further thanked China for its stance on the Cyprus problem.

For his part, Shang referred to agreements signed between Cyprus and China in 1980 and a further signing between the two education ministries in 2012 on the matter of higher education.

Shang also mentioned the two Confucius Institutes operating in Cyprus.

But his comments focused on the academy which he is representing, stating that its China’s highest-level institute for research and study into Chinese philosophy and social sciences.

Shang reiterated that the academy and the European University of Cyprus signed a memorandum of cooperation for their strategy, with a view to share personnel and information.

He concluded that the visit will lead to signing with the university an agreement to create a Chinese research centre at the university.