Cooperation between China and ASEAN countries in the field of education (2000–2020)

At the present stage of development, ASEAN countries are countries with rapidly developing economies, the countries have great human resources and cultural potential, as well as an ancient and rich history, which has close ties with China. The countries of the Asia-Pacific region are the objects of geopolitical and economic attention from the United States, China, Japan, India, and Australia. The environmental issues have become one of the main issues on the agenda, since after several qualitative civilization leaps in the history of mankind; the world community has faced problems in protecting the environment and realized the role of minimizing human impact on nature. Recently, China has been developing dynamically the cooperation with the ASEAN countries and the Southeast Asian region in many areas, including the actively developing field of education, and therefore this area is of particular interest for research. Within the framework of this problem, the article considered the history of the cooperation between the People's Republic of China and the ASEAN countries, as well as the collaboration between the regions in the field of education at the present stage. This study was conducted on the basis of various statistical materials, the texts of the speeches given by the state’s official representatives, the historical materials focused on the relationship between regions, as well as on the basis of articles and references to Internet sources’ analysis. The study examined the activities carried out between the PRC and ASEAN in the framework of the collaborative development in the education sector, considered the role of the Chinese diaspora in improving relations between the regions, and established a trend towards further development of relations in the field of education between the PRC and ASEAN countries due to the increase in demand for education in Chinese in Southeast Asia, revealed the cooperation between Chinese and the regional educational institutions. In addition, the desire on the part of the ASEAN countries and the PRC to increase the number of student exchanges between states was revealed. The practical significance of the work is due to the possibility of using the formulated theses for further study of the possibilities of educational cooperation between the ASEAN countries and China.