The United Kingdom is increasingly interested in Chinese

One day after the last article about how Chinese still lags behind in Germany comes this one (also in German), about how the popularity of the language is taking off there.

Some info from the article:

One out of three private schools in the UK offer courses in Mandarin Chinese, a boom that comes at the expense of other European languages as subjects.

(standard quote from interview with bright student who says China is the future, skipping that)

While many European companies are reducing costs at home, they are expanding in China. HSBC Holdings said in June that it would do away with 700 positions, and the next month announced that over the next five years it would create 2000 new positions in China and Singapore.

Burberry Group has seen an increase of 30% in turnover in China in the second quarter...China's second-largest trading partner in Europe is the UK, after Germany. PM David Cameron said that bilateral trade would double by 2015, reaching 100 billion dollars.

Some 100,000 Britons learn Chinese, and a total of 54 British universities have Chinese courses. 16% of state schools in 2010 offered Chinese, 4% more than in 2006. Independent (private) schools with Chinese were at 37% in 2010, compared to 2006 when the number was 18%.

No information about how this comes at the expense of other European languages, however.