Chinese government-linked language and cultural centers based at U.S. universities and schools largely are closed over congressional security concerns, according to a report by Congress’ General Accountability Office.
Confucius Institutes on campuses and in schools at one time numbered about 100 centers and today about five remain, the GAO said in a report made public this week.
Most schools disbanded the institutes after federal legislation banned government funding for any university hosting a Confucius Institute, the report said. The report did not identify which schools continue to host the centers.
Confucius Institutes were launched in 2004 and ostensibly were created by universities to promote Chinese language and culture.
Security concerns about Chinese influence operations from the centers led to federal government pressure, from both the FBI and Congress, to close the institutes down.
Many schools hosting the Chinese centers became dependent on the funds provided by China. Some centers helped organize Chinese students to lead opposition to issues in line with Chinese government official positions, including limiting public expressions of support for the democracy movement brutally put down by Chinese troops at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989. Tibetan human rights abuses and Taiwan freedom issues have also been targeted by Chinese student activists linked to the institutes.
The GAO report played down national security concerns regarding the institutes, noting that the FBI does not regard Confucius Institutes as a national security threat. Instead, the bureau views the centers as long-term “soft power” tools promoting Chinese policies.
A GAO survey found that 45 schools out of 74 university respondents said the potential loss of federal funding was the main reason behind closing the institutes. The federal government will spend $201 billion on universities, according to the industry research firm IBISWorld. Much of the federal funding is from defense contracts.
Other universities told GAO that government pressure led to the closures.
However, most of the schools also said there were few concerns about security or other risks from the institutes while they were open.
“When asked about their concerns related to espionage, intellectual property theft, or other national security threats based on their experience with their Confucius Institute, 80 percent (59 out of 74) of survey respondents stated that they were ‘not at all concerned’ while 5 percent (4 out of 74) stated that they were either ‘very concerned’ or ‘somewhat concerned,’” the report said.
The report was produced by Kimberly Gianopoulos, GAO’s director of international affairs and trade.
FBI Director Christopher A. Wray has described China’s Confucius Institutes as an element of Beijing’s attempts to wield its soft power.
The institutes “offer a platform to disseminate Chinese government or Chinese Communist Party propaganda, to encourage censorship, to restrict academic freedom… so it is an area of concern,” Mr. Wray said in Senate testimony several years ago.
Mr. Wray said he was encouraged that educational institutions had taken steps to curtail Confucius Institutes.
China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency reported in April 2007 that Li Changchun, then chairman the CCP Propaganda Department’s Central Guidance Commission on Building Spiritual Civilization, said Confucius Institutes were an “important part of the CCP’s external propaganda structure,” according to the Voice of America.
Kerry Gershaneck, an expert on Chinese political warfare, said Confucius Institutes and similar Chinese government-linked organizations should be banned and legal action taken against Chinese officials engaged in subversive activities.
“Although ostensibly a student support association, the real Chinese student association’s mission is to penetrate academia to subvert democratic institutions and to engage in espionage against their host country as well as academics and Chinese students matriculating abroad,” said Mr. Gershaneck, now with the Pacific Forum in Hawaii. “Confucius institutes are also engaged in various forms of censorship, coercion and surveillance of Chinese students and academics.”
Rachelle Peterson, a specialist with the National Association of Scholars and co-author of a Heritage Foundation report on Confucius Institutes, said there are indications the Chinese government is working to circumvent U.S. government restrictions on its operations.
For example, a day after the College of William and Mary closed its Confucius Institute in 2021, the school set up a partnership with the Beijing Normal University, a former partner of the school’s Confucius Institute, she said.
Also, the newsletter The Wire China reported in October that while developed nations are banning Confucius Institutes, China is expanding the institutes’ outreach in developing countries.
Chinese-run institutes are expanding in countries like Brazil, Peru and other Latin America states, Saudi Arabia, Kenya, Slovakia and Djibouti, the newsletter reported, noting that 111 Confucius Institutes have been shut down in the United States.
• Bill Gertz can be reached at bgertz@washingtontimes.com.
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