Two more Confucius Institutes close, but the fight isn’t over yet
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CounterCurrent:
The Mask They Wear
Two more Confucius Institutes close, but the fight isn’t over yet
CounterCurrent is the National Association of Scholars’ weekly newsletter, bringing you the biggest issues in academia and our responses to them.
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Category: Confucius Institutes, Foreign Influence; Reading Time: ~4 minutes
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** Featured Article - Press Release: University Researching Hypersonic Missile Tech Closes Communist Confucius Institute ([link removed])
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Exciting news in higher education: two more Confucius Institutes (CIs) have bitten the dust in the past month. In May, Wesleyan College announced the closure ([link removed]) of its CI, and just this week, Alfred University followed suit ([link removed]) in the wake of the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s investigation of its CI program. These are two victories for American national security and academic freedom.
The National Association of Scholars (NAS) has written extensively about CIs since 2017 in an effort to expose the dark side of these CCP-funded programs. Our first report, Outsourced to China ([link removed]) , made shockwaves in academia and revealed key details about CIs previously unknown to the public. As I’ve written before ([link removed]) , CIs are little more than a wolf in sheep’s clothing. They’re seemingly innocent, but in reality “are an extension of the CCP that teaches a narrow and biased perspective of Chinese history—one that glazes over the atrocities and human rights abuses of China’s political history.” Thus, we’ve continued to expose CIs as what they truly are: CCP soft power in American higher education.
NAS President Peter Wood and Senior Fellow for Foreign Affairs and Security Studies Ian Oxnevad expressed their particular concern over Alfred University’s CI in a June 1 op-ed ([link removed]) for The Daily Signal. But why did a CI at a small (student body of 1,600), private university in rural upstate New York spark such concern? Namely, because of Alfred’s College of Ceramics, a national leader in materials science. Alfred is also a military research partner of the U.S. government, and the institution recently received $4 million ([link removed])
for specialized ceramics research for hypersonic missiles. Ceramics are a surprisingly important area of research for the U.S. military—here’s why ([link removed]) :
Back when the U.S. was designing its space shuttle program, ceramics vaulted into public view as an art concerned with more than making decorative clay pots. The heat shields that allow rocket ships to return to Earth without burning up are the product of high-tech ceramics research.
Given this, it’s perhaps unsurprising that Alfred University was graciously chosen as a recipient, free of charge, of a CI by the CCP Hanban office back in 2009. It’s also worth noting ([link removed]) that Alfred “maintains a research contract with China University of Geosciences in Wuhan, which participates in classified People’s Liberation Army programs and research.”
Though there is no hard evidence that Alfred University’s CI sent American taxpayer-funded research or military technology back to China, it should raise eyebrows that this CI maintained a firm hold on a relatively small university with specialized military interests for as long as it did.
The number of CIs has dwindled ([link removed]) since 2017, with 110 institutes closed or in the process of closing, and only 11 remaining open. Bringing public awareness to CIs certainly helped to curtail CCP influence on college and university campuses for a time. Some legislation even followed ([link removed]) as a result of exposing the CCP’s malfeasance.
In an attempt to combat Chinese espionage on campus, Congress passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2021. The bill prohibits institutions with CIs from receiving Department of Defense (DoD) funding. Many schools have closed their CIs in the years since, fearing the loss of lucrative DoD contracts.
This is all fantastic news, but there is a snag. Earlier this year, the DoD announced the Confucius Institute Waiver Program ([link removed]) (CIWP), “that will be responsible for approving or denying waiver applications from any U.S. college that hosts a Confucius Institute ([link removed]) .” This program, in effect, allows CIs to continue operating within colleges and universities through a legal loophole—so long as the institution applies for this CI waiver, it can continue to receive DoD funding and maintain its CCP-funded program. This is disastrous for institutional integrity and academic freedom. As a countermeasure, Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Rep. Jim Banks (IN-03) have introduced the No
Federal Funding for CCP Spying and Persuasion in Education Settings (SPIES) Act ([link removed]) . This bill ([link removed]) “closes the CIWP loophole and prohibits any DoD funding for colleges that host Confucius Institutes. The legislation also prohibits DoD funding for international institutions of higher education that host Confucius Institutes.”
As we eagerly monitor the SPIES Act and the status of remaining CIs, we will continue our work exposing foreign influence in American higher education. Don’t be fooled by foreign influence’s mask of innocence. True intentions always come to light.
Until next week.
Kali Jerrard
Communications Associate
National Association of Scholars
Read the Full Press Release ([link removed])
For more on the foreign influence and higher education:
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June 20, 2023
** How Many Confucius Institutes Are in the United States? ([link removed])
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The National Association of Scholars
UPDATED: We're keeping track of all Confucius Institutes in the United States, including those that remain open, those that closed, and those that have announced their closing.
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November 05, 2022
** Improving Higher Ed Through Better Open-Records Laws ([link removed])
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Neetu Arnold and Ian Oxnevad
American higher education is in crisis due to a lack of affordability, growing irrelevance, and the ideological conformity that prevails in today’s classrooms. Less well-known is the pervasive foreign influence, particularly from authoritarian countries, on college campuses.
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June 15, 2022
** Report: After Confucius Institutes ([link removed])
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Rachelle Peterson, Ian Oxnevad, and Flora Yan
This report documents the new ways in which the Chinese government exerts undue influence on American colleges and universities.
** About the NAS
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