Máté Pesti, Hungarian ambassador to China, visited the Beijing International Studies University (BISU) on July 22. Ji Jinbiao, president of BISU, met with the envoy and his delegation. BISU’s vice-presidents Li Xiaomu and Zheng Chengjun joined the meeting. 

Ji Jinbiao, president of BISU, meets with Máté Pesti, Hungarian ambassador to China

The site of meeting

Ji warmly welcomed Ambassador Pesti and his delegation and briefed them about  BISU’s history, disciplines and cooperation between BISU and Hungarian institutions. 

Ji noted that BISU currently offers 48 undergraduate majors, of which 31 are foreign language-related and 29 are pure foreign language ones. BISU set up Hungarian language major at the first stage of BISU’s establishment. BISU has set up friendly cooperative relationship with four Hungarian universities including Eötvös Loránd University since 2015. In 2022, Hungarian language major was rated as the first-class undergraduate major in Beijing. Under the support of Hungarian Embassy in China, many Hungarian officials including the prime minister have visited BISU. 

Thanks to the construction of the China Institute for Cultural Trade Research by BISU in 2014, the cooperative research and industrial trade promotion in cultural and creative industries of Central and Eastern European countries including Hungary were launched at the end of that year. Inviting Ambassador Pesti as an honorary professor of BISU will further enhance the academic communication and cooperation between China and Hungary. 

President Ji Jinbiao awards the honorary professor appointment letter to ambassador Máté Pesti

Ambassador Pesti expressed his honor to be invited as an honorary professor of BISU and said that he will further promote Chinese-Hungarian educational and cultural communication and cooperation. He stressed that the language learning is the way to understand each other's cultures and ways of thinking. He noted that Hungary has been pushing forward the communication between China and Hungary, especially in educational and cultural fields and Hungary also offered a large number of scholarship opportunities for Chinese students. 

Ambassador Máté Pesti visits BISU’s history exhibition hall

At the same time, Hungary will continue to hold or participate in various influential events such as 16+1 China-CEEC Ministerial Conference and China-CEEC Cultural and Creative Industry Forum in order to promote China-CEEC relations.

The site of meeting

Ji praised Pesti’s remarks. He emphasized that China-Hungary relations have a long history. It is crucial for the two countries’ cultural communication. The two sides should strengthen tourism and cultural communication in the post-pandemic era. BISU’S foreign language majors create good condition for the cooperation between universities of two countries. As Pesti is now an honorary professor of BISU, Ji said he expects BISU to have more communication and cooperation with Hungarian embassy to further enhance China-Hungary relations. 

Accompanied by Li Xiaomu, Máté Pesti also visited Beijing Institute for International Communication to learn the situation of the academic services complex of national cultural trade. Máté Pesti had in depth discussion with relevant persons on China-Hungary cooperation in cultural and creative industry, vowing to make his contribution to push forward the rapid development of China-Hungary cultural trade.