In recent years, however, U.S. lecturers and administrators have debated whether teachers at the Confucius Institutes should use their educational materials to spread Chinese government propaganda. In 2014, the University of Chicago terminated its contract with the Confucius Institutes, and several other universities have done the same since. As a result, the number of institutes has dropped from above 100 at its peak.
Republican lawmakers, particularly Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who promotes aggressive policies against China, have urged U.S. schools to break ties with the institutes.
A 2018 report on Chinese government and Communist Party influencing operations in the United States conducted by the Hoover Institution and the Asia Society had details on the work and structure of the Confucius Institutes. It said the organization in Beijing, which oversees the institutes, the Hanban, which is under the Ministry of Education, has ties to the Central Committee of the Communist Party. The Hanban typically donates an initial amount of $ 150,000 to a U.S. university, with grants of $ 100,000 and $ 200,000 per year thereafter, the report said. It provides $ 50,000 in initial funding to secondary schools and $ 15,000 per year thereafter.
“Most difficult are two provisions in the Hanban contracts with American host institutions: one prohibits the CIs from carrying out activities that are contrary to Chinese law, while the other requires that the enabling contract remain confidential, and oversight by the academic community, ”the report said.
In summarizing its findings on the programs, the report states that “because CIs have had a positive value in exposing students and communities to Chinese language and culture, this report does not contradict them in general. But it does suggest that stricter university supervision and standards of academic freedom and transparency are exercised over CIs ”
Outside of the Confucius Institutes, many teachers and students of the Mandarin Chinese language at American universities have for decades used handbooks by Chinese publishers on the mainland who have lessons with public government as party propaganda. U.S. teachers and students have rarely objected to the material. For many university students, it has been easy to tell that the material is propaganda.
In a phone call with reporters, David R. Stilwell, the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and the Pacific, said on Thursday that the U.S. government would work with U.S. educational institutions to “seek other opportunities for Chinese language and instructional training. , ”But he gave no details.
