Experts' views on China-France relations
China DailyMA XUEJING/CHINA DAILY Editor's note: This year marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of China-France diplomatic ties. During the same period, several French Jesuits, later described as "Mathematicians of the King" arrived in Beijing, and became the mathematics teachers of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty.Their success in curing Kangxi of fever by administering quinine earned them the gift of a plot of land on which were later built an astronomical observatory and other buildings. One of the "Mathematicians of the King", Joachim Bouvet, corresponded with German philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, suggesting to him the connection between the binary system of arithmetic and the Yi Jing Hexagrams. Today, the Belles Lettres publishing house hosts a book series of annotated, bilingual Chinese classics, in which one can find the works as diverse as the Classic of Tea by Lu Yu, the 1895 Manifesto of Kang Youwei, and a treatise on painting techniques authored by Shen Zongqian. Their posterity is thriving: several Chinese universities maintain joint programs with leading French academic institutions so their best students can prepare for research and write their doctoral theses in France.