The Chinese government is now recognizing its headquarters Confucius Institute – International educational partnership which aims to promote a Chinese agenda – Under a new name.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) -funded program quietly announced in July that it was renaming its Confucian Institutes headquarters to the Hanban Center for Language Education and Cooperation. Party-powered Global Times Previously reported Given that it would “dispel Western misconceptions that the organization has served as China’s ideological marketing machine.”
The headquarters has also developed a non-governmental organization (NGO) called the Chinese International Education Foundation, which now controls local Confucian institutions, National Association of Scholars (NAS) researcher Rachel Peterson told Fox News.
“It’s a situation we haven’t fully understood yet,” Peterson said, noting that some American schools are abandoning Confucian institutions as “PR stunts” because of the institution’s reputation, Schools are adopting new Chinese learning programs that use the same textbooks, curriculum, staff and even money from Hanban.
As of March 17, there were 51 Confucian institutions with participation in US schools, including seven that were scheduled to close at Stony Brook University, Portland State University, Central Connecticut State University, Colorado State University, University of New Hampshire, Tufts University and Emory. are doing. University, According to Peterson.
More than 40 US schools have ended their involvement since launching the initiative in China in 2004, but Peterson suggests that ending these partnerships does not completely solve the problem because similar programs are known for new names. Are visible under.
For example, more than 100 Confucian institutions serving K-12 schools have been reintroduced as the Asia Society Chinese Language Partner Network. It works with the 65-year-old US-based Asia Society and receives funding from a new Hanban White paper The US Institute of Security shows.
Peterson said, “It sounds like a very straightforward name change” program
She named the University of Michigan as an example of a school that received funding from Hanban even after closing its Confucian institution.
US lawmakers have scrutinized participation in recent years, with some proposed legislation to further restrict their influence in some schools.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. Noted In 2018 Confucian programs in American schools refused to discuss CCP-sensitive issues, including the Taiwan, Tibet and Tianmen Square massacres.
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., Described the March 4 statement as threats to “academic freedom and free speech” after introducing legislation to tighten restrictions on institutions.
“Concerns over Nation’s Financing University Campus Institutions in the United States (Confucius) Act” launched in 2019 and 2020, with Kennedy targeting earlier this month that Chinese-funded cultural on college campuses The centers are targeted where lawmen are being used for propaganda. Agenda.
The measure would cut federal funding from universities that host Confucian institutions until they regulate all teaching staff appointed for cultural centers and oversee the curriculum.
The CONFUCIUS Act passed twice in the Senate during the previous administration, but the House never voted on the bill despite its bipartisan introduction in July 2020 by Rep. Anthony Gonzalez, R-Ohio, and former Rep. Donna Sasikala, D-Fla. .
William Burns, Russia’s former State Department diplomat and Biden’s nominee for CIA director, also recently expressed concerns with the program.
“I think what Confucian institutions do, and I am no expert on them, is to promote a statement by China of Xi Jinping, which, in my view, is sympathetic to what is a very aggressive leadership.” Designed to build, those who are engaged in conduct and held an adversarial approach to relations with the United States Told Senate Intelligence Committee in February.
Peterson says China’s re-enactment could affect the law because any Confucian institution that defines any law must explain that the partnership is funded by abuses, which now go by a different name. Is, which makes the definition of institutions outdated, “old.” he said.
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