The 13th Confucius Institute Conference kicked off on December 4 in Chengdu, southeast China’s Sichuan Province. The two-day event, sponsored by the Confucius Institute headquarters and the Sichuan provincial government, and organized by Sichuan's Education Department and the Chengdu city government, attracted more than 1,500 participants including university presidents and representatives of Confucius Institutes and Confucius Classrooms from more than 150 countries.

During the conference, China Today interviewed Rudolph F. Crew, president of Medgar Evers College, the City University of New York.