A Vice Premier of China, Liu Yandong, visited the Confucius Institute at Brazil’s São Paulo State University on Wednesday, Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua reported.

Ms Liu asked students at the institute to help in promoting friendship and co-operation ties between China and Brazil, the report said.

China’s Confucius Institute is an educational and cultural exchange organisation under an official Chinese body called the Office of Chinese Language Council International. Its goals are to teach Mandarin and promote Chinese culture internationally.

“Not long ago, President Xi [Jinping], Premier Li [Keqiang] and I received a letter signed by Mr Luís António Paulino, dean of the Confucius Institute, and some 30 students from the school… We are really moved by their enthusiasm for the Chinese language and their aspiration to learn more about China,” said the Chinese Vice Premier, as quoted by the media outlet.

Ms Liu was also quoted as saying there had been an increasing appetite among Brazilians for the study of Mandarin Chinese. She noted there were approximately 20,000 students registered at the 10 Confucius Institutes and the four middle school-level Confucius Classrooms in the South American nation. 

Ms Liu also noted that an ever greater number of young Chinese people had started to learn Portuguese; with the language currently being taught in approximately 30 universities in China. The Vice Premier added that mutual learning of the languages used respectively in Brazil and China had played a vital role in enhancing the friendship between the two peoples, Xinhua reported.