On December 10, the 2019 council meetings of the Confucius Institutes at the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus in Jamaica and Kabul University in Afghanistan were held in Changsha respectively. Han Ruiyong, Director of the International Cooperation and Exchanges Division of Shanxi Provincial Department of Education, and Liang Weiguo, Vice President of TYUT and Chinese Vice President of the Council attended the meeting. Prof. Dale Webber, Principal of the Mona Campus, at the University of the West Indies and Foreign President of the Council, and Prof. Hamidullah Farooqi, Chancellor of Kabul University and Foreign President of the Council attended the council meetings of Confucius Institute at the Mona Campus and Kabul University respectively.

On behalf of Party Secretary Wu Yucheng and President Huang Qingxue of TYUT, Liang Weiguo extended his welcome to Webber, second time to China, and Farooqi, seventh time to China, and thanked the two universities for their support to the development of the Confucius Institutes over the years. He pointed out that with the joint efforts of both the Chinese and foreign parties, the education and teaching quality of the Confucius Institutes has been steadily improving, their cultural exchanges become more and more active and their service capability greatly enhanced. The Confucius Institutes have contributed to meeting the needs of the two peoples to learn the Chinese language and culture. He requested that the two Confucius Institutes should further innovate their teaching methods, strengthen the capacity building for their teaching staff, improve their quality evaluation system, and create an authoritative platform for Chinese language teaching. Efforts should be made to organize more colorful cultural activities and build a comprehensive platform for people-to-people exchanges. The two Confucius Institutes should attempt to implement the “Chinese +” program, set up special courses that fit their local conditions, establish a pragmatic cooperation support platform, and promote the comprehensive and in-depth cooperation between the Chinese and foreign universities. They should insist on running their institutes in an open-door way, give full play to the advantages of both universities, and cultivate more outstanding talents who are familiar with each other’s countries. And they should build a national platform for friendly exchanges and aim to contribute to deepening Sino-foreign friendship and building a community of shared future for mankind.

Han Ruiyong expressed his appreciation for the achievements made by TYUT in building the Confucius Institutes, and introduced the international educational cooperation and exchanges of Shanxi Province to the representatives of the foreign parties. He stated that support for the construction and development of the Confucius Institutes would be further increased.

During the meeting, the Chinese and foreign deans of the Confucius Institutes reported on their work in 2019 and their work plan for 2020 respectively. Meeting participants discussed the problems and difficulties facing the Confucius Institute in its development, put forward solutions, and determined the list of members for the new council.

The heads of the International Cooperation Division and College of International Education Exchange of TYUT attended the meeting.