Congresswoman Yvette Herrell (R-NM) recently said the United States needs to address Confucius Institutes and other Chinese government involvement in American education and research institutions in the interest of national security.
The Chinese government funds Confucius Institutes to promote Chinese language and cultural education in public schools, while facilitating cultural exchanges and supporting international Chinese teaching, the Austin Journal reported. However, some have criticized these institutes as providing a route through which the Chinese government can infiltrate and influence the U.S. education system.
Herrell is a cosponsor of the Countering Communist China Act, which recognizes China and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as the United States' top national security threat and aims to counter China's malign influence, according to Congress’s website. In part, the legislation would restrict federal funding to American universities that partner with Chinese institutions or employ CCP-funded instructors, as well as screen students from China, North Korea, and Iran who participate in research projects that are on the Sensitive Research Project List.
“Confucius Centers and other Chinese government programs in some research institutions have direct ties to the Chinese Communist Party, acting as centers for intelligence gathering, influence, and espionage,” Herrell said in a statement. “They have been used to monitor the activities of Chinese and American students. The United States should not tolerate such glaring security risks and dangerous foreign interference.”
A report from the National Association of Scholars lists more than a dozen active Confucius Institutes at schools in the U.S., including Stanford University, West Virginia University, and the University of Akron. The report found 104 Confucius Institutes that have closed or are in the process of closing but noted at least 28 replaced the program with a similar one, and at least 58 have maintained close ties with their former Confucius Institute partners.
The Heritage Foundation called Confucius Institutes a critical component of China's "soft war" strategy against the U.S., utilized to spread favorable impressions of China. Li Changchun, a CCP propaganda leader, called Confucius Institutes “an important part of China’s overseas propaganda setup.”
"Texas A&M was among the first in the state to host a so-called Confucius Institute," said Michael Quinn Sullivan, host of the podcast “Exposed,” according to the Austin Journal. "Let’s be clear up front. Most of these institutes, including the one at Texas A&M, have been shut down or renamed or merged with other more innocuous-sounding programs. But how they started? Why? And the eagerness of school officials to embrace them. Well, that's all very revealing.”
Sullivan noted that China has not only targeted universities but has worked to extend its reach into K-12 schools as well, specifically pointing to the Houston Independent School District, which the Chinese government reportedly paid to establish a program, according to the Austin Journal.
“These Confucius Institutes weren’t just about indoctrinating college students, but digging even deeper into our educational culture,” Sullivan said. “In schools around the state, Confucius classrooms, the K-to-12 sibling of Confucius Institutes, were being quietly established. In each case the Confucius Institutes and classrooms were provided money, curriculum and planted teachers in our institutions. Public school bureaucracies constantly shout about local control and decry any attempts by state lawmakers to put transparency or accountability into public schools. And yet, those same schools are willing to let the communist Chinese government set curriculum and hiring."
