On 21 January, the Malaysian Minister of Higher Education officially handed a letter to invite XMU to set up a campus in Malaysia.

On 4 October, in the presence of General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, Xi Jinping and former Prime Minister of Malaysia, Dato' Sri Najib Razak, the agreement on providing all-round support for the construction of XMUM was signed.

In July, former Prime Minister of Malaysia, Dato' Sri Najib Razak attended the commencement ceremony of the campus.

On 23 November, at the Malaysia-China High Level Economic Forum, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said that the establishment of XMUM “not only demonstrates the depth of people-to-people exchange between China and Malaysia, but also the openness of the Malaysian government and its people”.

On 3 December, XMUM officially opened for enquiries as well as for receiving applications after announcing the launch of the university's student recruitment.