U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) claimed Confucius Institutes are funded by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) under different names within American college campuses.
Gosar noted that the Confucius Institutes are put in place to exploit American higher education with attempts to distract from China’s human rights abuses, a Jan. 25 statement provided to the State Newswire said. Instead, they direct students toward a political framework while restricting free speech.
“Institutions of higher education are the steppingstone for the development of the minds of the future leaders of America,” Gosar said in the statement. “Unfortunately, foreign entities disguising themselves as cultural education institutions raise many concerns about academic freedom and autonomy on our public universities. The Confucius Institute is a Chinese Communist Party funded institution operating in dozens of campuses across the United States and serves as a platform to advance China’s political agenda by exporting Chinese state censorship, restricting free speech and undermining academic integrity by molding attitudes in college classrooms while avoiding any discussion regarding China’s widespread human rights abuses.”
Confucius Institutes (CI's) were first introduced to the United States in 2004 when many colleges and universities established them as cultural centers to teach American college students the Chinese language and culture, Lee Edwards said in a commentary posted by The Heritage Foundation in 2021. Calling them “instruments of propaganda,” he noted that the institutes are directly funded by the CCP and directed according to the Chinese government’s wishes to paint China and its political motivations in a good way. Teachers at the institutes are instructed to avoid certain topics in Chinese history, such as the Tiananmen Square massacre and the Cultural Revolution.
A National Association of Scholars (NAS) report found that 106 of the institutes were closed or in the process of being closed but continue to maintain a relationship with their former Confucius Institute and, although under another name, act very similarly. An update in September 2022 confirmed that 15 Confucius Institutes remained in the U.S., with one at Stanford University in California. The rebranding changed the name to the Chinese International Education Fund, which the NAS said continues to allow the Chinese government and CCP to influence American higher education.
Gosar is not alone in his denouncement of the CCP infiltrating American universities. U.S. Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN 3rd Dist.) filed the Countering Communist China Act in 2021, which recognizes the CCP as the Unites States' top national security threat. The bill would disallow the CCP to fund partner groups, such as Confucius Institutes, on American college campuses.
The Heritage Foundation called Confucius Institutes a critical component of China's “soft war” strategy against the U.S., which is 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.”
