China has become Asia's most popular destination for overseas students, said Li Hai, deputy director of the Department of International Cooperation and Exchange of China's Ministry¹ of Education, at a press conference last month.

教育部国际合作与交流司副司长李海在上个月的一场发布会上表示，我国已经成为亚洲最大的留学目的国。

According to Li, China has stepped onto a new stage of two-way student exchanges. A total of 545,000 Chinese students studied overseas in 2016, while 443,000 international students came to China, up 36.2% and 35.1%, respectively.

据李海介绍，我国已经在双向留学上迈上了新台阶。2016年，出国留学的中国学生达54.5万人，而来华的国际学生则有44.3万人，这两个数字分别增长了36.2%和35.1%。

In addition, the country saw 433,000 overseas returnees in the last year, and they have become a major force that promotes China's education, economy, and culture.

此外，去年共有43.3万海归回国，他们已成为提升我国教育、经济、文化的重要力量。

By the end of 2016, China established cooperative partnerships² with 188 countries and regions, and signed agreements of mutual³ recognition of degrees with 47 countries and regions.

截至2016年年底，我国与188个国家和地区建立了教育合作关系，并与47个国家和地区签署了学历学位互认协议。

The country has also built high-level cultural exchange mechanisms⁴ with Russia, the U.S., the U.K., the European Union, France, Indonesia, South Africa, and Germany.

此外，我国也已经与俄罗斯、美国、英国、欧盟、法国、印度尼西亚、南非、德国建立起了高级别人文交流机制。

Cultural communication is now one of the three major diplomatic pillars, together with political mutual trust and economic cooperation.

人文交流现在已与政治互信、经贸合作一道，成为了我国外交的三大支柱。

Now, more than 170 countries offer Chinese courses, 67 of which have incorporated Chinese into their national education systems. The number of non-native Chinese learners has reached 100 million worldwide.

现在，共有超过170个国家开设了汉语课程，其中67个国家将汉语教学纳入国民教育体系当中。在全世界范围内，母语为非汉语的学习者的人数已经达到了1亿人。