On October 22, President Xi Jinping attended the UK Confucius Institutes and Classrooms Annual Meeting in London and addressed the opening ceremony. Shi Jianjun, Director of Confucius Institute Headquarters and President of the University of International Business and Economics, was invited to the meeting and was received by President Xi.

Accompanied by Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, Xi Jinping watched the achievement exhibition and a performance by students of UK Confucius Institutes. In his opening speech, Xi emphasized that it is through language one know can best understand a country and the Confucius Institutes are an important platform to introduce China to the world. As a window and bridge for linguistic and cultural exchanges between China and the rest of the world, Confucius Institutes and Classrooms have played positive roles in helping the world learn Chinese language and its culture, as well as promoting the development of human civilization.

Xi pointed that Confucius Institutes are developing rapidly in the UK. With 29 Confucius Institutes and 126 Confucius Classrooms, UK now stands first in Europe. The accomplishments of UK Confucius Institute construction is an example of the flourishing of Sino-British cultural exchanges. He also expressed his hope that all faculties and students in Confucius Institutes continue to strengthen China-UK relationship and that Confucius Institute adhere to its motto of "mutual respect, friendly negotiation, equality and mutual benefit" and make more contributions to international cultural communication.

Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, was praised the work of the UK Confucius Institutes. He promised to encourage more British kids to learn Chinese and make contributions to the Britain-China partnership. Whereafter, President Xi and Prince Andrew jointly inaugurated the 1000th Confucius Classroom at the Hautlieu School.

This Annual Meeting themed "The Sustainable Development of Confucius Institutes and Classrooms" included issues of "Analysis and Judgment of Sustainable Development Form of Confucius Institutes", "Expectations of Confucius Institutes in 5 Years" and "Measures to Improve the Quality of Confucius Institutes". Attendants include university presidents of all Confucius Institutes in UK, directors of the Institutes, headmasters and core teachers from schools with Confucius Classrooms and key officials from Chinese academic institutions.

In recent years, as China's impact in international politics, world economics and culture continues to grow, the international promotion of Chinese is developing rapidly to suit the ever-growing needs of Chinese learning. The establishment and development of Confucius Institutes has bridged the communication and mutual learning between China and the rest of the world by training of a large pool of international students with good understanding of China and Chinese, as well as transcultural communication skills.

Until 2015, the University of International Business and Economics has helped establish nine Confucius Institutes: the Business Confucius Institute at the University of Leeds, Confucius Institute at Russian State University for the Humanities, Confucius Institute at the University of Texas at San Antonio, Brazil FAAP Business Confucius Institute, Business Confucius Institute in Athens, Confucius Institute at Autonomic University of New Leon, Confucius Institute at Fukuyama University, Confucius Institute at University of Malawi and Business Confucius Institute at Victoria University. These nine Institutes spread over nine different countries in five continents, fostering talents with Chinese proficiency. The cooperation provides a useful help in increasing UIBE's international influence and promote future cooperation and exchanges between UIBE and other overseas universities.