Between May 11 and 21, 2017, Prof. Hu Ming, Vice Council Chair of CUPL, was invited to lead a delegation to visit prestigious universities in the Unites States, Mexico and Barbados. During the visits, the delegation signed several cooperation agreements. They also attended the First Joint Conference of Confucius Institutes in the Caribbean Region-- sponsored by Hanban/Confucius Institute Headquarters and organized by the Confucius Institute at the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies and the CI, jointly-built by CUPL-- and participated in a series of activities. Aiming at accumulating high-quality education resources across the world and seizing the opportunity of “double top-tiers” construction, this visit focused on deepening all-round cooperation with eminent institutions of higher education in the aforementioned countries and regions.

During the visit, the CUPL delegation was invited to attend a series of activities, including: the First Joint Conference of Confucius Institutes in the Caribbean Region, the Third Board Meeting of the Confucius Institute at the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies, the signing ceremony of the Sino-Caribbean Legal Research Center, the signing ceremony of co-publishing project, the opening ceremony of the Moot Court Competition, the launching ceremony of the Building of the CI, open classes at CI and others. Prof. Hu made remarks at several events, including the opening and closing ceremonies of the joint conference, the board meeting and signing ceremonies.

The grand opening ceremony of the First Joint Conference of Confucius Institutes in the Caribbean Region and launching ceremony of the building of the CI at Barbados were held at the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies on May 18. There were over 100 participants, including Chinese and foreign Co-Directors of seven Confucius Institutes, Confucius Classrooms, and Latin American Institutes in the Caribbean Region, as well as representatives from different sectors like education, culture, and publishing. With its impressive Chinese features, the building of the Confucius Institute at the Cave Hill Campus caught everyone’s eye. Before the opening ceremony, the participants visited the exhibition themed “the second anniversary of the CI” and attended the Chinese Calligraphy Open Class organized by the CI. After two years’ of construction and with wide support and care, the new building was finally completed. It has provided a better environment for the CI and has laid a good foundation for the future development of the CI.

With the CI as a platform, joint efforts have been made to further strengthen the all-round cooperation between CUPL and the University of the West Indies in various areas. The two universities will jointly establish the Sino-Caribbean Legal Research Center, launch the translation and publishing project of Chinese and Caribbean culture, and jointly hold Moot Court Competitions. Agreements between the two universities have been forged and signed as witnessed by local news agencies. On the same day, the opening ceremony of the First Moot Court Competition and the official competition were held between May 22 and 24. CUPL sent 4 participants to attend the competition. According to previous agreements, the Second Competition will then be held at CUPL.

In addition, the delegation paid a visit to the National Autonomous University of Mexico and Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México, and visited CUPL alumni studying in Mexico. The two sides reached an agreement to jointly organize academic cooperation, hold academic conferences, conduct faculty and student exchanges, recommend CUPL PhD candidates to work at the National Autonomous University of Mexico and so on. Later, the Memorandum of Understanding on Academic Cooperation and the Agreement on Student Exchange were signed. Basing on previous cooperation, the two sides agreed upon further expanding exchange and lecturing programs for faculty and joint-training programs for students.

During the visit to the US, the delegation conducted a thorough visit to Washington University in St Louis and had in-depth talks and discussions with James Wertsch, Vice-President in charge of international affairs, Nancy Staudt, Dean of the Law School, Michael Koby, Vice-Dean of the Law School among others. Based on existing cooperation programs such as LLM and joint-training of doctoral students, the two universities further discussed the programs for expanding cooperation areas and signed relevant agreements.

Yin Shudong, Director and Chief Editor of CUPL Press, Wang Zhenfeng, Vice-dean of Graduate School, Li Juqian, Vice Dean of School of International Law, and Li Dandan, Director of Confucius Institute Office accompanied Vice-Chair Hu Ming during the visit.