Three Points for Reflection on the Period of Opportunity for the International Promotion of Chinese

Yang Huilin

In the three short years 2005-08, the State Hanban has already set up more than 260 Confucius Institutes in 75 countries, and taken the initial steps in forming the basic structures for ‘increasing the speed at which the Chinese language heads towards the world.’ How to grasp further current opportunities and set in place development plans for the medium and long term, requires deeper reflection on the following three aspects:

• 1)Historical lessons on the mutual rise and fall of a nation’s ‘hard power’ and its cultural ‘soft power.’
• 2)The actual needs and potential value of the international promotion of Chinese
• 3)The ‘Three Step’ plan and six major strategies for the period of opportunity for the international promotion of Chinese