Electron impact excitation cross sections from the ground state and the lowest metastable state 5p56s J =2 to the excited states of the 5p5 7p configuration of xenon are calculated systematically using the fully relativistic distorted wave method.Special attention is paid to the configuration interaction effects in the wave-function expansion of target states.The results are in good agreement with the recent experimental data by Jung et al [Phys.Rev.A 80 (2009) 062708] over the measured energy range.These accurate theoretical results can be used in the modeling and diagnosis of plasmas containing xenon.