Former Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab praised China's higher education system, highlighting its role as a cornerstone for the country's technological and economic achievements.
An advocate for advancing higher education and fostering university exchanges, Diab highlighted China's success in building world-class universities during an interview with China Media Group (CMG) in south China's Guangzhou City.
The former Lebanese prime minister emphasized the importance of long-term planning, drawing a comparison to the principles of a Chinese proverb that values education as a foundation for enduring progress.
"I have great respect for the Chinese culture. It's a culture that is thousands and thousands of years' old, more than 5,000. Lebanese culture is also about 3,000 or more years' old with the Phoenicians. I think at the core of a lot of the technological advancement is higher education. If you look at a lot of the countries that have changed status from third-world countries to great economic powers, you will notice that the first thing they did was to revamp their education and higher education systems, create research centers, find niches in the technological area where they can excel and join the economic powers of the world," said Diab.
"And China obviously did that at multiple levels, if you compare it to a few decades ago. So higher education is my passion and my dream would be to build a lot of bridges between some of the top universities. This opens up a lot of channels to also excel at the cultural level, where people can more understand each other more and build on the cultures of both sides, both countries that are interacting. There's no doubt that many universities in China are among the top in the world in different specializations," he said.
Diab expressed his gratitude towards Chinese people for their warm reception.
"Everything was impressive to me. I've already met with some of the top companies in the area of renewable energy, construction and they really are the state of the art across the globe, and some of the things that they offer, in terms of power generation using renewable energy. I have other visits today to AI technology companies as well. Truly, everything I saw is impressive, but the most impressive I think are the people, the kindness of the people. You just feel that you are part of an extended family," he said.
Former Lebanese PM lauds China's higher education as key to economic growth
