On July 10, a delegation of the “EU Officials Study Visits to China” program, comprising 35 EU officials and relevant personnel of the Office of Chinese Language Council International and Beijing Language and Culture University, paid a visit to CASTED, and attended a meeting chaired by Jiang Dehua, Director of European Affairs Section, Department of International Cooperation, Ministry of Science and Technology of China, where CASTED President Hu Zhijian gave a report entitled “China’s STI Development, Innovation Strategy and STI Policy”.

In his report, Hu Zhijian surveyed China’s S&T development from the five aspects of the main characteristics of China’s STI, the latest trends, innovation-driven development strategy, STI policy and directions of reform, and open innovation, and answered questions from the representatives. The meeting strengthened the EU’s understanding and recognition of China’s S&T development and further promoted China-EU STI cooperation.

The “EU Officials Study Visits to China” program is one of the key programs launched under the China-EU High Level People-to-People Dialogue mechanism and is for the purpose of increasing EU officials’ understanding of China and solidifying the official foundation of China-EU ties. The Office of Chinese Language Council International is responsible for the implementation of the program in China. The visit in this July represented the third visit under the program and had S&T as one of its themes, with participants coming from 12 divisions and 6 affiliated organizations of the European Commission.