President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter to the 2024 World Chinese Language Conference, which opened in Beijing on Friday.

In his letter, Xi also congratulated the Confucius Institute on the 20th anniversary of its establishment.

Xi said the Chinese language, which encapsulates the millennia-old wisdom of Chinese civilization, is an important public cultural product that China has contributed to the world.

China's responsibility as the native-language repository of Chinese is to support and facilitate the international community in conducting Chinese language education, Xi said.

Xi expressed the hope that the conference will enhance interconnection and integration, build consensus, and strive to build bridges of linguistic connectivity, understanding and mutual trust, and mutual learning between civilizations, thus contributing to jointly building a community with a shared future for mankind.

Vice-President Han Zheng read out Xi's letter and delivered a speech at the opening ceremony of the conference, highlighting that international Chinese language education has opened a window for people in various countries to learn Chinese and built a bridge of communication to enhance friendship between China and people from all over the world.

Chinese language education has also created a platform for promoting exchanges and mutual learning among different civilizations, Han said.

Themed "Interconnection, Integration, Inheritance, Innovation", the 2024 World Chinese Language Conference is hosted by the Ministry of Education.

The conference, running from Friday to Sunday, brought together over 2,000 participants, including government officials, school principals, experts, scholars, representatives of teachers and students, and diplomatic envoys from more than 160 countries and regions.

The conference aims to enhance language and cultural exchanges, hoping to promote the innovative development of Confucius Institutes, the ministry said.