Karunadilaka Amunugama and Bandula Gunawardhana have a political bond - Amunugama is Sri Lanka's vice-minister of external affairs, and Gunawardhana is the minister of education.

Now they also are fellow PhD students at Beijing Foreign Studies University.

Beijing Foreign Studies University is one of the 14 universities in China selected as the first to launch the Confucius China Studies Program - a talent-fostering program of the Confucius Institute headquarters.