MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WMOT) -- A high ranking Chinese official is in the mid-state for visit.
Vice Minister Xu Lin will meet with Governor Bill Haslam today, and then tour the campus at Middle Tennessee State University.
The minister oversees a worldwide network of more than 400 Confucius Institutes, funded by the Chinese government, that provide Chinese language, cultural and teaching resources.
A Confucius Institute was opened on the MTSU campus in 2010 through a partnership with Hangzhou Normal University. In recent years, MTSU President Sidney McPhee has fostered a number of ties with Chinese institutions of higher learning.
Over the weekend, Vice Minister Xu Lin was at Western Kentucky University to preside over a meeting of Confucius Institute directors from across the United States.