“With the Chinese authorities, I made a point of saying that we will be very committed to the teaching of Chinese in Portugal,” remarked the Portuguese Foreign Minister after concluding a three-day visit to mainland China.
In Beijing, Rangel met with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, before proceeding to meet Chinese Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang on Hainan Island, where the annual Boao Forum conference was held.
“The situation today is much better than it was 20 years ago (…). We now have a training capacity that we simply did not have,” stated Paulo Rangel during a reception for the Portuguese community in Macau.
In addition to undergraduate degrees in Chinese language and culture, the Confucius Institute, under the supervision of a governmental agency, offers Mandarin courses at five Portuguese universities: Porto, Aveiro, Coimbra, Lisbon, and Minho.
In late February, the rector of the University of the Azores, Susana Mira Leal, announced plans to open a delegation of the Confucius Institute at the institution.
Training individuals fluent in Mandarin “is also crucial for our future,” but it “is not enough for the challenges we face,” Paulo Rangel cautioned.
On Tuesday, the minister requested that Beijing authorities further promote Chinese language teaching abroad, particularly in the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP).
Addressing a group of Chinese students during a lecture at a university in northern Beijing, Rangel also stated that “Portugal is an ancient country, but Portuguese is the language of the future.”
“It is the most spoken language in the southern hemisphere, and by 2100, there will be over 600 million Portuguese speakers,” predicted the Portuguese Foreign Minister, in front of an audience of more than a hundred students at the Beijing Foreign Studies University (‘Beiwai’).
Rangel also emphasized the economic significance of the Portuguese-speaking countries and regions, estimating their combined Gross Domestic Product to be three trillion euros.
“The Community of Portuguese Language Countries would be the sixth-largest economic bloc in the world,” he explained.
The oldest undergraduate program in Portuguese language in China was established in 1961, precisely at Beiwai, and remained the only one of its kind in the country until the late 1990s.
However, the teaching of Portuguese on the Chinese mainland has experienced rapid growth over the past 25 years, driven by the development of trade between China and Portuguese-speaking countries.
Excluding Macau and Hong Kong, more than 50 Chinese universities offer Portuguese, either as a degree program or an optional subject, involving over 4,300 students, according to data from the Portuguese Institute in the East.
