Confucius Institutes, long associated with the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) efforts to maintain influence on U.S. college and university campuses, appear to be largely gone but they really aren't, according to the National Association of Scholars (NAS).
Instead, Confucius Institutes have been rebranded, NAS, a New York-based nonprofit political advocacy group, stated in a social media post. CIs, "once a strategic part of China's overseas influence campaign, have almost disappeared from the United States - but in their places have cropped up new forms of CCP influence," NAS stated in a Nov. 22 Twitter post.
The Twitter post linked to "After Confucius Institutes," published in June by NAS. The report states 104 of 118 CIs have closed, but the apparent demise "has not deterred the Chinese government from seeking alternative means of influencing American colleges and universities."
The NAS is not the first group to express concern over CIs' and successor organizations' connection with the CCP. The U.S. Senate in March 2021 unanimously passed the Concerns Over Nations Funding University Campus Institutes in the United States (CONFUCIUS) Act, Senate Bill 590. The bill's sponsor, Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), said at the time that he introduced the legislation over about Confucius Institutes' suppression of free speech on U.S. college campuses.
"Confucius Institutes are under the control of the Chinese Communist Party in all but name," Kennedy said in his March 4, 2021 statement, issued the same day as the bill's passage in the Senate. "They are propaganda centers that threaten academic liberty and free speech without shame, and too many American schools are falling victim to the political con every day."
SB 590 would give colleges and universities full control over resident Confucius Institutes "and restore freedom of thought on their campuses," Kennedy said in the statement.
The CONFUCIUS Act, as passed by the Senate, specifically establishes disclosure requirements for post-secondary educational institutions that receive federal funding and have contracts or agreements with Confucius Institutes. Under the act, those contracts or agreements must protect academic freedoms, prohibit the application of foreign law on the institutions' campuses and grant full managerial authority to the institutions, including full control over teaching plans, activities, research grants and employment decisions.
The Senate unanimous passage of the CONFUCIUS Act "is good news for students and educators," Kennedy said.
"I hope the House joins us in sending the CONFUCIUS Act to the president’s desk," he said.
U.S. House Rep. Anthony Gonzalez (R-Ohio) reintroduced in April 2021 his version of the CONFUCIUS Act, House Resolution 2622, saying that the Chinese Communist Party "poses the greatest threat to American sovereignty."
"From their rampant theft of American intellectual property, to their egregious acts of genocide in Xinjiang, it is clear that we must pursue a whole of government approach in holding the CCP accountable," Gonzalez said in a statement issued April 16, 2021. "I am proud to reintroduce this bill to target the CCP's attempts to steal American research and innovation and coerce our colleges and universities. I stand committed to protecting our American way of life from the malice of the CCP."
HR 2622 has yet to make it out of the House Committee on Education and Labor.
The CONFUCIUS Act is not the first time Congress has taken a look and China's influence on U.S. campuses. In its 2019 report "Threats to the U.S. Research Enterprise: China’s Talent Recruitment Plans," the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs' Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations how U.S. taxpayers funding is caught up in China's schemes on campus. The subcommittee's year-long investigation, lead by then Chairman Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and then ranking member Tom Carper (D-Del.), found U.S. taxpayers unknowingly funded the rise of China's military and economy for more than 20 years with little deterrence from federal agencies.
The 100-page subcommittee report dated China's talent recruitment programs to the late 1990s, when China began recruiting U.S.-based scientists and researchers to transfer U.S. taxpayer-funded intellectual property for China's economic and military gain.
America First Policy Institute's (AFPI) report, "Chinese Communist Party-Funded Campus Initiatives Undermine U.S. National Security," published in November, claims China uses student organizations like Confucius Institutes, to take advantage of "woke" trends and uses accusations of “racism” and “intolerance” to de-platform anti-CCP speakers on university campuses while spying on Chinese dissidents within the student population, according to the report.
The AFPI report also states that CCP partnerships with universities, as well as recruitment of individual researchers through talent programs, create an environment of "nontraditional collectors" of intelligence and intellectual property."
"China has explicitly called for educational initiatives, direct funding of programs and faculty on U.S. campuses, and the placement of students in advanced graduate programs to advance its espionage and theft of intellectual property efforts," the report states.
In a separate report issued in October, "Systematic Chinese Communist Subversion of American Higher Education," AFPI recounted the experience of former Central Intelligence Agency officer Joe Augustyn with Chinese espionage in the United States.
"We know without a doubt that anytime a graduate student from China comes to the U.S., they are briefed when they go, and briefed when they come back," Augustyn was quoted in America First Policy Institute's report, which originally came from a 2019 CNN interview.
"They don’t just come here to spy," Augustyn told CNN, adding that Chinese students "come here to study and a lot of it is legitimate."
"But there is no question in my mind, depending on where they are and what they are doing, that they have a role to play for their government," Augustyn said.
