On the morning of January 19, the Ambassador of the Republic of Benin, Simon Pierre Adovelande, and his secretary, Mahouwame Élysée Kahomey, visited Wuhan University. A meeting hosted by Wuhan University Vice President Tang Qizhu in the Administrative Building was attended by Qin Tianbao, director of the Office of International Affairs, Professor Zhou Xin and leaders from Wuhan University Zhongnan Hospital, as well as staff from the Hubei Provincial People’s Government Foreign Affairs Office.

Tang Qizhu warmly welcomed Ambassador Simon Pierre Adovelande and sincerely congratulated Professor Zhou Xin on being awarded the Bénin ‘Friendship Medal’. He highlighted the long-standing and profound friendship between China and Africa, the history of WHU’s educational exchanges and cooperation with Africa, and the fruitful achievements in talent cultivation, scientific research, and platform construction. He pointed out that the Ambassador’s special visit to Wuhan and the awarding of the Bénin ‘Friendship Medal’ to Professor Zhou Xin is not only a high commendation from the Benin government for Professor Zhou’s outstanding contributions to medical exchanges between China and Benin, but also a recognition of the efforts of Wuhan University in improving Sino-Bénin educational exchanges.”

With the proceeding of the meeting, Ambassador Adovelande first expressed his sincere gratitude to WHU on the warm reception and then extended his genuine appreciation and respect to Professor Zhou for his constant support to African students, especially those from Benin. He also recognized Professor Zhou’s painstaking efforts in improving healthcare education in Benin. Moreover, highlighting WHU’s long history and significant impact on educational exchanges, he hoped that more students from Benin would come to WHU for further study in the future, thus deepening the international education cooperation between China and Benin.

Subsequently, on behalf of the Republic of Benin and its embassy in China, Ambassador Adovelande awarded the Benin ‘Friendship Medal’ to Professor Zhou. Tang Qizhu presented the Ambassador with a souvenir, and they took a photo together in the Administrative Building.

Professor Zhou Xin is a doctoral supervisor at Wuhan University and a second-level professor with a long history of advancing relations between Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University and the University of Abomey-Calavi (Benin). He has been sincerely caring for and diligently nurturing a large number of outstanding international students, such as Professor Julien Segbo from the University of Abomey-Calavi in Benin, making great contributions to Bénin’s higher education, research development and the friendship between the two countries.

Edited by Cao Hangqian, Lin Baoyi