Interview: Oxford's links with China now "stronger than at any other time": Vice-Chancellor

China has been the focus of study at Oxford University for over four centuries, and their links now "are stronger than at any other time," Vice-Chancellor of the university Andrew Hamilton said recently in an interview with Xinhua.

"Oxford is forging ever stronger links with China every year," he said in the detailed written interview.

"The strength of Oxford's ties in China, and the importance the University pays to the country have been highlighted by the launch of major new initiatives, the visit of Chinese officials to Oxford, and the continuing growth in the number of excellent Chinese students who come here to study," the vice-chancellor said.

Hamilton elaborated the "highlights" in Oxford-China cooperation in his time. The 63-year-old man has been the vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford since 2009. He will leave Oxford at the end of this year to become the next president of New York University. Previously, he also served as provost of Yale University from 2004 to 2008.

In 2014, the Dickson Poon University of Oxford China Center Building, a world-class facility dedicated to the study of China, was opened, and it brings nearly 50 academics with an interest in China under the same roof.

"It underpins the University's commitment to the study of China, and as one of the best centers for the study of China in the West, it is an important information source both here in UK and globally," he said.

It also provides a focus for international China specialists and institutions who want to work more closely with Oxford, he added.

In 2013, the Oxford Center for Translational Immunology, a joint venture between the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, China Center for Disease Control, Beijing's You'an Hospital and Oxford, was set up to study hepatitis B and liver disease.

In the same year, Hamilton signed a memorandum with the Suzhou Industrial Park to explore the development of a cutting-edge research center based at the Park in east China's Jiangsu province.

Hamilton, a renowned chemist, also saw Oxford medical researchers going "from strength to strength, working in China in collaboration with Chinese researchers and institutions."

"In 2011, I was lucky enough to be in China to celebrate OUP (Oxford University Press) China's 50th anniversary, with more than 15 million students in Chinese mainland and more than 700,000 students in Hong Kong now using OUP China materials in their everyday education," he said.

He also mentioned the launch of the Oxford Chinese Dictionary, a publication he described as "the world's most authoritative English-Chinese/Chinese-English dictionary" published in 2010 by Oxford University Press.

In recent years, the partnership between the university and China has also been cemented by a series of high-level visits.

"We were very honored to have a visit from Professor Cheng Hong, wife of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in 2014. She made a generous donation of 1,039 volumes of Chinese books to the Bodleian Library," Hamilton said.

"Professor Cheng's visit followed the renewal of Oxford's agreement with the China Scholarships Council, which provides funding for up to 20 excellent Chinese students to begin DPhil (PhD) degrees every year," he added.

He said Oxford, the oldest university in the English-speaking world, has a long tradition of scholarship about China, and that Oxford-China ties date back to as early as 1604, when the first Chinese book arrived at the Bodleian Library.

As China's role in the world expands, Hamilton said, Oxford is positioned as one of the top centers to study "this fascinating process."

He noted that Oxford has China experts working in many different academic fields "who are helping deepen an understanding of China."

"This can only influence how the wider world views China, economically, politically and culturally," he said.

Underscoring the value of studying China at Oxford, the university helmsman explained that "China's recent exponential growth as a global power means that its impact on the rest of the world has increased in many different ways."

"I would therefore agree that learning about and learning from China, the world's most populous nation, has never been more important than it is now," he concluded, echoing a similar remark by Prince William at the opening of the Dickson Poon China Center Building last year. Endit