Svetlov Boris speaks at the event in Beijing on Monday. Photo: Courtesy of Wu Xuanhe

A symposium attended by 11 Chinese scholars and 28 overseas sinologists and scholars from 24 countries and regions kicked off in Beijing on Monday. The theme of the two-day 2018 Symposium on China Studies, an annual gathering platform for overseas sinologists and scholars, is "40th Anniversary of the Reform and Opening-up: China and the World."

The symposium includes three panel discussions: China's New Developmental Philosophy and a New Prospect for International Cooperation, The Belt and Road Initiative and Common Development, and Chinese Culture and a Community with a Shared Future for Mankind.

Svetlov Boris, former minister of culture for the Republic of Belarus, said at the opening: "I consider Chinese culture as a peculiar 'Great Silk Road' that exists not only in geographical space, but also in historical time. China and the West have mutually supplemented each other for a long time, adopting each others' advanced scientific and technical achievements, philosophies and art."

According to Xie Jinying, the director-general of China's Bureau for External Cultural Relations under the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, this year's Symposium on China Studies, which is in its sixth year, will collect overseas sinologists' discussions and suggestions into a book that will be published in China at a later date.