One World, One Fight: Peking University Strengthens Global Cooperation amid COVID-19

BEIJING, May 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Since the COVID-19 outbreak, Peking University has been at the forefront of the battle against the novel coronavirus. While the pandemic is gradually brought under control in China, countries across the world are still in a struggle to contain it.

In light of this, the School of Foreign Languages (SFL) at Peking University translated China's official documents on the prevention and control of COVID-19 into Arabic, and released Counter COVID-19 Documents (Arabic Version) on May 6 during a video conference with 11 Arab ambassadors to China, director of the Representative Office of the League of Arab States to China, and 8 Arab envoys to China.

Since March, in the hope of sharing China's anti-pandemic experience with the Arab world, faculty and students from the Department of Arabic Language have dedicated themselves to the translation of guidelines formulated by China's National Health Commission. The Arabic materials will be distributed to Arab embassies in China, Chinese embassies and state-owned enterprises in Arab states, so that these valuable resources can be accessible to the wider Arab community and help 400 million people living in 22 Arab states and regions learn more about the coronavirus and eventually conquer it.

The Arabic compilation includes the "Protocol on Prevention and Control of COVID-19 (Editions 1-6)" and the "Diagnosis and Treatment Protocol for Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia (Trial Version 7)". To ensure accuracy, foreign experts were also invited to proofread the translations. Additionally, a number of the key guidance documents have also been rendered into English, with proofreading from experts at the PKU Health Science Center.

Furthermore, as part of the efforts to help foreigners better understand medical terms that they might come across in notices and news written in Chinese, faculty and students from SFL have put together a multilingual COVID-19 terminology handbook in 21 different languages.

Ph.D. candidate Chen Binbin from the Department of Chinese at Peking University went to great lengths to set up a translation group, known as "China-Iran Epidemic Prevention Mutual Assistance Team", bringing together over 200 volunteers from China, Iran and Afghanistan to translate China's anti-pandemic knowledge and experience into Persian and sharing them with Iranians via social media platforms.

Following the COVID-19 outbreak, Peking University has adopted a slew of measures in its response. Medical teams of 454 healthcare professionals from PKU-affiliated hospitals were immediately dispatched to Wuhan, China's worst-hit city. This semester, over 2,800 teachers taught 4,437 online courses to more than 40,000 students on a variety of online platforms. 60 of PKU's international teachers coming from 31 different countries and regions across 5 continents overcame the challenges posed by being in different time zones and continued to teach their classes.

Moreover, Peking University has been proactive in sharing its anti-pandemic experience with universities around the world over the past few months. The university-wide dialogues have been conducted through participating in the World Economic Forum's Global University Leaders Forum, and convening video conferences with partner universities including the University of Tokyo, University College London, Cairo University, University of Michigan and Qatar University.

International cooperation plays a crucial role in the fight against this pandemic. As the COVID-19 outbreak remains rampant in many parts of the world, Peking University will continue to maintain online communication with higher education institutions across the globe, and all members of the PKU community will spare no efforts to support the global fight.

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