Diplomatic Pouch: With Mike Peters

France's new foreign minister Laurent Fabius told an audience at the University of Aeronautics and Astronautics in Beijing this month that his country now welcomes 35,000 Chinese students and "our ambition is to develop and boost this figure in France by 2015 to 50,000 Chinese students, favoring master's and PhD levels".

"For this, we must work to strengthen student mobility. It is particularly important to further facilitate the granting of visas, not only for students but more generally," he said during his first visit to China since the installation of the new government of President Francois Hollande. He noted that about 1 million visas to France were issued in China last year.

"We also wish to facilitate the professional integration of foreign students in France who have the academic curriculum that allows it. As you know, one of the first measures of the new government was to change regulations on this point that, with the previous government team, were restrictive." Fabius said that in a modern world it is important to welcome students in France who then become "our best ambassadors around the world".

The 12th Munich Symposium of the German-Chinese Rule of Law Dialogue was held on July 16-17 under the supervision of the federal Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger and the head of the Legal Office of the State Council, Minister Song Dahan. The theme of this year's symposium was "civil rights and state law in the digital age", and panelists from both countries discussed how online violations of law can be enforced, how personal data can be protected there, and how the network affects citizen participation and legislation.

The German-Chinese Rechtsstaatsdailog stems from an agreement made in 1999, and it seeks to provide a long-term approach to building the rule of law and the enforcement of human rights in China. Coordinators of the program are, on the German side, the Federal Ministry of Justice, and on the Chinese side, the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council.

Germany's Ambassador to China Michael Schaefer and the director of the National Art Museum of China, Fan Di'an, opened the recent two-week exhibition Constructivism in Europe, with works from the private collection of Gerhard Cromme, who attended the opening. The show brought together a broad spectrum of signature works by Wassily Kandinsky, Kasimir Malevich, Alexander Rodchenko, Vladimir Tatlin, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Otto Freundlich and other artists, all involved in the complex process of the avant-garde movement of the early 20th century.

The museum is devoted primarily to modern and contemporary art from China, but it increasingly includes European art works in its exhibition program, particularly Impressionism and Expressionism.

The Swedish consul general in Mongolia, Luvsanvandan Boldkhuyag, was given the Order of the Polar Star at a ceremony in Ulaanbaatar this summer. The order was presented by Sweden's Ambassador to China Lars Freden in the presence of family, friends and fellow diplomats.

The Royal Swedish Order of the Polar Star was instituted in 1748 by King Fredrik I. Today it is only awarded to non-Swedish citizens and to members of the royal court who have made personal efforts for Sweden or for Swedish interests.

Send embassy and consulate news to michaelpeters@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 07/20/2012 page31)