According to this Reuters article, the Chinese government would like to see more students studying Chinese.  Reading between the lines, it looks like the government believes if more westerners study Chinese, this will in-turn lead to a softening of perceptions towards China. Not a bad idea really as a first step to a better cultural understanding on both sides.

Understanding “Chinese thinking”  is in part easier to do once you start to study the language as many phrases and metaphors are derived from history or poems – which in-tern have shaped Chinese culture.

To encourage the adoption of Chinese, Beijing has established “Confucius Institutes” globally. Putting 2 and 2 together, It seems to me that the Confucius Institute at Melbourne University is one of these language centers.