The 13th Confucius Institute Conference was held on December 4 to 5 in Chengdu. More than 1,500 delegates from 154 countries and regions attended the conference. The theme of this conference was "Reform and Innovation for Development, Working Together for the Future". Sun Chunlan, vice premier of the state council, chairman of the Confucius Institutes headquarters council, and Chen Baosheng, minister of education, attended the opening ceremony.

Ten agreement signing ceremonies for the newly established CIs were held during this conference. Tian Xuejun, vice minister of education and Tian Hongqi, president of CSU, attended and witnessed the agreement signing ceremony of the establishment of CI at University of Orleans, with Ma Jianfei, deputy director of Hanban and Ary Bruand, president of University of Orleans, signing the agreement.

Tian Xuejun suggested that both sides adhere to the school motto going as “mutual respect, friendly consultation and mutual benefits” so as to strengthen the foundation of this cooperation, continuously improve the quality and level of the running of CI, aiming to make contributions to promote the construction of building a human community with shared future.

University of Orleans is located in Orleans, the capitalof Loire province and central regions, France. It was founded in 1306 by the royal Clement V. As a famous international university with a long history, it has more than 12 faculties, including economic law, management, history, literature, language, etc. The total enrollment of students is over 17,000 now. The CI at the University of Orleans is the second CIestablished by CSU.