Chinese President Xi Jinping put his weight behind the expansion of Mandarin language teaching overseas, during visits to the US and UK this month, as leaders from both countries agreed that language is the best way to create truly bilateral relations.

I think the market will not be like the old times, with everyone taking that much time on English study. But the study abroad trend is not changed, it is still there and more people will choose to study abroad.

Speaking at the Stanford Center at Peking University (SCPKU) in Beijing on her visit to China last week, the US First Lady, Michelle Obama, joined by Washington's ambassador to Beijing, said that study abroad is a "vital part of our foreign policy."

Entertainer will.i.am has secured a grant from the 100,000 Strong Foundation to enable underserved students from Los Angeles to learn Mandarin and study in China. $100,000 will be made available to support youngsters from the Boyle Heights neighbourhood.

As a parting gift in her last week as US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton has launched a permanent foundation to build Sino-US exchange in education for years to come. The 100,000 Strong Foundation follows the similarly named programme of 2010, designed to increase the number of Americans studying in China to 100,000 by 2014. 12 times more Chinese study in America than the other way round.