Confucius Institutes: China’s Trojan Horse
SPECIAL MESSAGE
By NYGuy13
According to their website Confucius Institutes U.S. Center’s mission “ promotes a nationwide network of Confucius Institutes that delivers educational and cultural programs that teach Mandarin, cultivate Chinese cultural awareness, and facilitate educational exchanges.” Is this organization really an educational institution or a hub of the Chinese Communist Party, designed to spread propaganda throughout the world?
On August 13, 2020 the State Department declared the Confucius Institute U.S. Center a foreign mission The State Department defines a foreign mission as “any mission to or agency or entity in the United States which is involved in the diplomatic, consular or other activities of, or which is substantially owned or effectively controlled by a foreign government, or an organization representing a territory or political entity which has been granted diplomatic or other official privileges and immunities under the laws of the United States or which engages in some aspect of the conduct of international affairs of such territory or political entity, including any real property of such a mission and including the personnel of such a mission.” In its tax filings the organization is listed as a subsidiary of the Chinese Language Institute Council International or Hanban which is financed by the Ministry of Education of China
There are currently 65 US college campuses with Confucius Institutes. You can click here to search for a Confucius Institute near you. They have recently expanded into elementary schools and high schools. Partnering with the College Board to offer a guest Chinese teacher program.
Li Changchun, a Chinese Politburo member and the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda czar called the Confucius Institutes “an important component of China’s grand external propaganda program.” When the Confucius Institute offers to fund a Chinese language program on a college campus the university must sign a memorandum of understanding that they will support a one-China policy. Thereby prohibiting the discussion of the rights of self determination of ethnic and religious minorities in China such as the Falun Gong, the Uighurs, Tibet, and Hong Kong. American universities are basically selling their academic freedom to China in exchange for grants from the Ministry of Education of China.
Pressure has mounted on many universities to close their Confucius Institutes. According to the National Association of Scholars, since September of 2014 53 colleges have closed their Confucius Institute. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said he hopes that all Confucius Institutes in the United States will be closed by year end.
Prompted by the U.S. Department of Education’s investigation into foreign money received by US Colleges and a separate Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs report called the Chinese impact on the U.S. Education System prompted the Concerns Over Nations Funding University Campus Institutes in the United States Act or CONFUCIUS Act to be sponsored in the Senate by Louisiana’s John Kennedy. The CONFUCIUS Act would prohibit Federal aid for a college or university that has a Confucius Institute and fails to protect academic freedom, and allows the Confucius Institute’s U.S. Center (Ministry of Education of China) to maintain full control of what is being taught, how the curriculum is being taught and who is being employed by these institutes. On June 10, 2020 it passed the Senate with unanimous consent.
It was sent to the House in July, where Speaker Nancy Pelosi has blocked it from reaching the House floor As we have seen over the last few months with the devastating impact of COVID-19, which came directly from China, this is a vital issue of national security. Any form of Chinese government influence on the United States must be curtailed. Is Pelosi playing politics or protecting her and her party’s donors in academia? Neither is a valid excuse for not eradicating this threat right now.
