Hope India will treat Confucius Institutes in fair, objective manner: China

China on Tuesday expressed hope that India will treat Confucius Institutes in an "objective and fair manner".

In a statement, the Chinese embassy has asked India to avoid politicising normal cooperation and maintain healthy and stable development of China-India people-to-people and cultural exchanges.

The remarks come after India begins a comprehensive review of local chapters of Confucius Institutes and agreements with Indian universities.

Confucius Institutes are public educational partnerships between colleges and universities in China with those in other countries and deals in Chinese language teaching.

"Over the years, Confucius Institutes have played an important role in promoting Chinese language teaching in India and China-India people-to-people and cultural exchanges. This has been generally recognised by the Indian education community," read the statement.

"We hope Indian relevant parties can treat Confucius Institutes and China-India higher education cooperation in an objective and fair manner, avoid politicising normal cooperation and maintain healthy and stable development of China-India people-to-people and cultural exchanges," it added.

The embassy statement further added that the demand for Chinese language teaching is expanding in India.

"All Confucius Institutes were established by the Chinese and Indian universities after signing a legally binding cooperation agreement in accordance with the principles of mutual respect, friendly consultation, equality and mutual benefit and on the premise that the Indian side applied voluntarily and met the conditions for running the Institute. China-India cooperation on Confucius Institute Project has been carried out for more than 10 years," it stated.

Yesterday it was reported that the Ministry of Education will review the setting up of local chapters of the Confucius Institutes in association with seven local colleges and universities in the country.