The National High School Debate League of China, or simply NHSDLC, is an English-language high school debate league serving Mainland China. It uses the Public Forum debate format.[citation needed] Each year, the NHSDLC sees around 50,000 students participate in its debate workshops [1] and around 12,000 students participate in its regional or national tournaments that it hosts in more than 33 cities in China.[2][3][4][5] According to The Economist, many students believe participating will help their application to a Western university.[6]
It was founded in 2012,[7] and it hosted one of China's first ever English-language high school national debate tournaments for local students at Peking University[8] in May 2013. Each year, its national debate championship hosted in Beijing attracts 450 students from around China.[1] NHSDLC is partnered with Harvard College Mentors for Urban Debate,[9] Penn for Youth Debate, the Princeton Debate Panel, the Chicago Debate Society,[10] the Yale Debate Association,[11] Sunrise International Education, and the Stanford Youth Debate Initiative.