Cornelia Pieper, Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office, is travelling today (25 May) to the People’s Republic of China for talks on foreign and education policy. Her trip, which ends on 31 May, will take her to Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. She will be accompanied by Patrick Kurth, a Member of the German Bundestag.

In Beijing, Minister of State Pieper will have talks with Deputy Foreign Minister Fu Ying and Deputy Education Minister Hao Ping, with whom she will also sign a communiqué on implementing the Schools: Partners for the Future (PASCH) initiative in China. Furthermore, she will meet the board of the Chinese businesswomen’s federation.

In Shanghai, Minister of State Pieper will open the “Better City – Better Life” event at the EXPO and visit the German pavilion as well as the German-Chinese House, which is part of the programme of events “Germany and China – Moving Ahead Together”. Together with Detlef Schubert, State Secretary of the Economics Ministry of Saxony-Anhalt, she will open a presentation of the federal state Saxony-Anhalt. At Tongji University, the Minister of State will get together with students from the Chinese-German School for Graduate Studies for an exchange of views.

The last stop in the Minister of State’s trip will be Hong Kong, where she will meet Education Minister Michael Suen, as well as representatives of the German business community.