Educational Diplomacy as a Mechanism for Strengthening Russian-Chinese Relations

The article aims to identify key areas of educational diplomacy for the development of Russian-Chinese relations. To achieve the goal, the article sets and solves a number of tasks. Firstly, an overview of the legal and regulatory base that ensures bilateral cooperation is provided. The set of international agreements is aimed at ensuring educational and scientific exchanges. Secondly, the key projects realised within the educational diplomacy between the Russian Federation and the China are highlighted. The diversity and increase in the number of projects indicate the mutual interest of the parties in the development of Russian-Chinese relations. Thirdly, the factors constraining the cooperation were identified, including: the lack of a system of equivalent recognition of scientific journals of the Russian Federation and the Chinese People's Republic, difficulties in promoting of the Russian universities on the Chinese market, language barrier. Fourthly, the authors identified perspective directions for the development of educational diplomacy of the Russian Federation and offered recommendations for improving it. In particular, a recommendation to increase the use of marketing tools to enhance the prestige of Russian education among Chinese students was developed. It is suggested to develop the activities of Russian universities on the Internet platforms of the People's Republic of China, to expand the presence in the system of online education in China. In addition, the importance of developing bilingual and multicultural programs is emphasised. In the framework of scientific cooperation, it is proposed to create a joint list of Russian and Chinese scientific journals, publications in which will be taken into account in awarding academic degrees and titles in both countries. The implementation of the proposed measures could help strengthen bilateral relations in the educational, scientific, cultural and humanitarian spheres.