William Sima, a student in the ANU's Faculty of Asian Studies, has won a place in ‘China Bridge’, a Chinese-language proficiency contest for foreign college students, and will be going to China (Changsha and Beijing) for the final from July 9 to August 7, 2009.

The Australian leg of the competition, held in Perth, included a written test on Chinese proficiency and knowledge of China, a speech, and performance of a Chinese song. Only one winner from universities in Western Australia, South Australia, the Northern Territory, Queensland and the ACT will be going to China for the final.

Climate change experts from China and Australia met at ANU on April 15 to look at international climate cooperation in the lead up to the UN Climate Change meeting in Copenhagen in December.

The forum brought together experts from ANU, the Australian Government, the Energy Research Institute in China and the Chinese Development Research Centre for wide-ranging discussions on Chinese and Australian climate change programs.

The Minister for Climate Change and Water, Senator Penny Wong delivered the keynote address at University House. Senator Wong outlined the key elements needed for a global agreement on climate change and the importance of all nations playing a role in building this agreement.

The days of ‘civilising missions’ of Christian Missionaries may be long gone, but Christian NGOs working in China are still able to spread Biblical messages legally despite strict laws banning the practice, according to Dr Miwa Hirono.

Dr Hirono, a visiting fellow at the ANU Department of International Relations, has spent four years researching the role of Christian NGOs in China and whether they are still able to spread a Christian message against the wishes of the secular Communist government. This work has recently been published as Civilizing Missions: International Religious Agencies in China by Palgrave Macmillan.

Dr Hirono said that despite Chinese laws, the overseas NGOs have become adept at passing on Christian values through building strong ties and being perceived as valuable by the communities they work in.

Congratulations to the many members of the ANU China Institute who have had success with their ARC Discovery Project proposals for 2009. The number of successes is an indication of the strength of ANU in China-related research.

The successful proposals for members of the institute are as follows:

The institute would also like to extend its congratulations to the following ANU academics:

A full list of the successful project proposals for the ANU and other institutions for 2009 is available here.