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Catherine Wong

Robert Delaney

China has said it may take countermeasures after the US designated a Chinese government-funded language programme as a foreign mission.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said the move, which requires Confucius Institutes in the US to register staff and property holdings with the state department, was a “smear”.
“The US approach is to demonise and stigmatise China-US cooperation projects. China is strongly dissatisfied and resolutely opposes this.
“The Confucius Institute is a bridge to help people from all over the world to learn Chinese and understand China,” Zhao said on Friday.
He said the organisation strictly abided by local laws.
“Some people in the US brutally interfere with China-US humanities cooperation because of ideological prejudice and self-interest, which is totally unacceptable,” he said.
US government orders Confucius Institutes to register as foreign mission
“We urge the US to abandon the Cold War mentality, stop politicising and stop interfering with China-US cultural exchanges. China reserves the right to make a further response to that.”
Confucius Institutes operate under the auspices of the Ministry of Education’s Chinese Language Council International, also known as Hanban. About 75 Confucius Institutes are active on university campuses and elsewhere in the US teaching Mandarin and Chinese culture.
Campus programmes managed and funded by Confucius Institutes in the US will not have to register.
The US also has about 500 “Confucius Classrooms” from kindergarten through to high school level. These programmes are managed by Hanban through US universities that host Confucius Institutes.
At least 25 programmes have closed over allegations that they were being used as part of an influence operation and teachers and course materials were being selected by Beijing.


Explaining the decision, David Stilwell, the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, said the designation was “long overdue” because “this reciprocal relationship is wildly out of balance” in the area of educational exchanges.
Local laws limited the activities of non-governmental organisations and educational exchanges in China, he said.
“We asked them [Confucius Institutes] to tell us what they’re doing here in the US, we’re not closing it. We’re simply designating them as what they are, as foreign missions,” Stilwell said.
He likened the move to new restrictions on Chinese state media outlets in the US, which have also been designated as foreign missions and had limits placed on the number of Chinese staff they can employ.
“This process that we’ve done so far with media and others has significantly improved visibility into what state media is doing,” he said.
US set to make China’s Confucius Institutes register as ‘foreign missions’
A 2017 report by the National Association of Scholars in the US cited examples of Chinese government control over teachers and agreements between Hanban and host universities to keep their contracts private.
The latest action against Confucius Institutes comes amid a series of other initiatives to counter perceived Chinese influence operations and national security threats. The two nations are locked in confrontation in almost every field, from economics and trade, to security and the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Gao Qing, executive director of Confucius Institutes in the US, said in a statement the organisation was willing to cooperate with the state department and its requests for information.
“We have also made multiple attempts to open our organisation to the press to show that we, with a predominantly American staff, are committed to transparency. Sadly, we have seldom been taken up on our offers to show the work we’re doing and to allow our American students to speak to their educational experiences through not only our organisation, but also the independent, university-controlled Confucius Institute programmes across the country,” the statement said.
“Apparently, we are living in a time where teaching a foreign language is seen as a political act by some people.
“As ironic as it sounds, our small team of American staff is still being defined as a ‘foreign mission’. “Clearly caught up in international sabre-rattling, this naked political opportunism is in serious need of a fact check.”



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China accuses US of ‘smearing’ Confucius Institutes after designating them a foreign mission

Confucius Institutes offer language and culture lessons. Photo: Handout

US government orders Confucius Institutes to register as foreign mission

Screen shot of Confucius Institute at the University of Michigan's website. Photo: Confucius Institute

FILE PHOTO: David Stilwell, U.S. Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, answers reporters' questions at the Foreign Ministry in Seoul, South Korea, November 6, 2019. REUTERS/Heo Ran/File Photo

The Confucius Institutes in the US has been designated a foreign mission by the US State Department. Photo: Handout

US set to make China’s Confucius Institutes register as ‘foreign missions’

Critics say Confucius Institutes critics are vehicles for Chinese influence on campuses. Photo: Handout

FILE- In this March 14, 2019, file photo, people walk on the Stanford University campus beneath Hoover Tower in Stanford, Calif. A week after revoking sweeping new restrictions on international students, federal immigration officials on Friday, July 24, 2020, announced that new foreign students will be barred from entering the United States if they plan to take their classes entirely online this fall. (AP Photo/Ben Margot, File)

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Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian suggested that the US could have been responsible for bringing the coronavirus to China. Photo: AP

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Tang Juan (pictured left and right) was one of four people charged with visa fraud for allegedly concealing being members of China’s military while working in the US. Photo: EPA-EFE

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China

Diplomacy


Government-funded language programmes will now have to disclose staff and holdings to US government
Move has been prompted by concerns over Beijing’s influence over the language institutes and US says the action is long overdue



Move has been prompted by concerns over Beijing’s influence over the language institutes and US says the action is long overdue.


US-China relations

United States

Education