A contestant tells a story about the twelve Chinese zodiac signs at the Chinese Bridge Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign Secondary School Students in Adelaide, Australia. WANG GUANLUN / XINHUA

The educational department of East China's Jiangsu province will cooperate with foreign cities to set up 50 more Confucius Classes and three to five Confucius Institutes in two years, despite some criticism of the cultural project, according to the local government.

Ding Xiaochang, deputy director of the educational department, said that 200 volunteers and university teachers will be sent to Confucius Institutes and Classes from the province each year.

"We try to make the Confucius Institutes and Classes serve as a platform for educational, cultural and economic cooperation between China and other countries," Ding said. "The nonprofit program can forge friendships and mutual understanding if it is operated well."

According to the department, from 2008 to 2014, Jiangsu province established or helped set up 29 Confucius Institutes in Europe, North America and Africa.

Since 2004, when the first Confucius Institute was established in Uzbekistan, about 460 institutions and more than 710 Confucius Classrooms have been established in 123 countries and regions to teach the Chinese language and culture.