A three-year campaign, to promote development of soccer among youth in areas with large ethnic minority populations, is under way across China. The campaign was launched in December 2024, after the National Ethnic Affairs Commission (NEAC) and the All-China Women's Federation (ACWF) signed an agreement, during a meeting, on December 10, 2024, to strengthen efforts to forge a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation. 

China Women's Colleges and Universities' Alliance and six universities, directly under the NEAC, will train 1,000 women students to be sports instructors. Those students will then provide pairing-up teaching services to approximately 10,000 children from rural communities and/or primary and high schools in areas with large ethnic minority populations. The instructors will also help popularize the standard spoken and written Chinese language, and they will promote exchanges and communications among youth of various ethnic groups. 

Pan Yue, deputy head of the United Front Work Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, and Director of the NEAC, and Huang Xiaowei, Vice-President and First Member of the Secretariat of the ACWF, attended the meeting. They witnessed the agreement's signing, and they presented flags and books to the students who will be the instructors.

(Women of China English Monthly January 2025)

Editor: Wang Shasha