To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Chile, China-Chile week was jointly held by Tsinghua University, together with Chile’s top universities, the University of Chile and the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, from December 14th to December 18th, 2020.

This China-Chile week consisted of a series of webinars covering topics such as improving economic performance while taking control of Covid-19, China-Chile relations, China-Chile online education, health care & surveillance challenges during Covid-19, science and technology innovation, and related matters. It was held under the support and participation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Chile, the Embassy of Chile in China, the Embassy of China in Chile, the Corporation of Promotion of Production (Corfo), and other government agencies, Tsinghua University, Peking University, Zhejiang University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Fudan University, the University of Chile, the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, the University of Concepción of Chile, and other institutions.

On December 14th, Yang Bin, Vice President and Provost of Tsinghua University, attended the opening ceremony and delivered a speech. Among the guests were Ennio Vivaldi, President of the University of Chile, Ignacio Sánchez, President of Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, Zhou Yi, Chargé d’Affaires of the Embassy of China in Chile, Rodrigo Toledo, Head of the Politician Division of Embassy of Chile in China, and other dignitaries.

In his speech, Yang Bin expressed congratulations for the fruitful and practical cooperation developed between Tsinghua University, the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, and the University of Chile. He said that the cooperation between the universities of both countries demonstrated their common mission of "facing the challenges and opportunities of the future".

Yang Bin delivering a speech in the opening ceremony

Following the opening ceremony, there was a webinar on " Improving Economic Performance while taking Control of Covid-19: Experience Sharing and Cooperation".

On December 15th, a "China-Chile Relations" webinar was successfully held, during which a new book named "Relations between Chile-China: an integral focus" was launched. This book was jointly compiled by scholars from China and Chile to commemorate the 50-year cooperative relationship between the two countries.

On December 16th, an online education dialogue was successfully held with the theme of "China-Chile Online Education Dialogue: Envisioning a Shared Future for Higher Education". This dialogue, mainly focusing on discussing the past, the present and the future of online education, is the first event jointly organized by the member universities of the Global MOOC Alliance after its new establishment.

On December 17th and 18th, webinars on "Health Care & Surveillance Challenges during Covid-19: Experience Sharing between Chile and China" and "Science and Technology Innovation" were held in succession.

More than 300 people took part in the events via the ZOOM online conference platform, and more than 3,300 people watched the live webinars through the XuetangX platform. In addition, the University of Chile and the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile broadcast the events live simultaneously via YouTube and Facebook.

From Tsinghua University Latin America Center

Editors: Li Han, Sangeet,John Olbrich