The 12th Confucius Institute Conference was opened on Tuesday in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province with “deepening cooperation, developing through innovation, working together to build a community of shared future for mankind” as its theme. 

Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong delivered a keynote speech at the three-day conference. She said that Confucius Institute has been playing a pivot role in cultural exchanges since it was founded in 2004. There are 525 Confucius Institutes and 1,113 Confucius Classrooms in 146 countries or regions. 140 Confucius Institutes and 136 Classrooms have been established in 53 countries that are part of the Belt and Road Initiative.  

Learning Chinese is becoming increasingly popular across the world. Recently, a video of an American girl named "Happy Rogers," daughter of financial tycoon Jim Rogers, speaking fluent Mandarin went viral on Chinese social media. Mandarin is not only a social bond linking China and other countries but also a diplomatic connection, an example of which was US President Trump’s visit to Beijing this year. Chinese President Xi Jinping met Trump in the Forbidden City, where Trump showed video clips of his granddaughter, Arabella Kushner, singing in Mandarin and reciting Chinese classics. Xi spoke highly of Arabella's performance.  

In the past decade, 220,000 cultural activities have been held by Confucius Institutes and Classrooms worldwide, attracting a total of 100 million participants. With the increasing popularity of Chinese language, foreigners will deepen their understanding of Chinese culture and society.