The launch conference for the Annual Report on Development of the United Kingdom (2024-2025) was held at Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU) on Oct 11.

Hosted by BFSU, the event drew nearly 100 experts, scholars and graduate students from around 40 universities and research institutions.

The Annual Report on Development of the United Kingdom (2024-2025) is released at BFSU. [Photo/bfsu.edu.cn]

In their opening remarks, Yang Luxin, dean of the School of English and International Studies at BFSU; Luo Lin, dean of the School of Foreign Studies at Beijing Language and Culture University and director of the Secretariat for Country and Regional Studies of China's Ministry of Education; Feng Zhongping, a researcher at the Institute of European Studies of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) and president of the Chinese Association of European Studies; and Li Liwen, dean of BFSU's School of English for Specific Purposes, called for deeper research on the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world as a way to advance reform and innovation in the English language and literature discipline and to enable foreign language and literature studies and area studies to reinforce each other.

Wang Zhanpeng, executive dean of the BFSU Country and Area Studies Academy and director of the British Studies Centre, delivered the keynote report. The volume is the 11th Blue Book of the United Kingdom.

Chen Xiaolyu, a professor at the School of History of Nanjing University; Tian Dewen, a researcher at the Institute of Russian, Eastern European and Central Asian Studies of CASS; and Zhao Huaipu, a professor at the Institute of International Relations of China Foreign Affairs University also gave keynote reports, addressing the UK's constitutional and national questions, the value of British studies as a paradigm within China's own system of area studies, and new shifts in the "special relationship" between Britain and the United States.

Running alongside the launch, the fourth symposium on Discipline Building of British Studies from the Perspective of Area Studies convened three parallel panels on interdisciplinary perspectives in British studies and a graduate student forum. More than 40 scholars and graduate students discussed British political, economic and social developments and frontier questions in British studies.

At a special forum on building an academic network for English-speaking-world studies, more than 30 centers, departments and schools from renowned universities jointly issued an initiative on deepening English-speaking-world studies and promoting interdisciplinary innovation. The initiative calls for stronger collaboration in talent cultivation, academic research and policy advisory work, and for more effective service to national strategic needs.