When US anger rises at China’s Confucius Institutes, Southeast Asia thinks of the consequences

Accused by Trump of being a propaganda front for the Chinese Communist Party, Confucius Institutes around the world are under intense scrutiny

Asean minds are more open: to many, any political influence the institutes wield is balanced by the need to understand a top trade partner’s perspective

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The US has accused Confucius Institutes of being a front for the Chinese Communist Party. Photo: AP

Published: 8:00am, 9 Jan 2021Updated: 6:12am, 11 Jan 2021

For the past three years, Cavin Cheong has been sending his two primary school-aged children to the Confucius Institute (CI) in southwest Singapore for weekly Chinese enrichment classes.

He said the two – aged seven and nine – liked the learning environment and teachers there, and they also attended a Chinese cultural camp at the end of each year. “My kids are exposed to various cultural activities like martial arts, use of abacus, Chinese painting and calligraphy, as well as various Chinese festivals and celebrations,” the 46-year-old added.

The Singapore Confucius Institute is a tie-up between China’s Centre for Language Education and Cooperation, an organisation affiliated with the Chinese education ministry formerly known as Hanban that runs the CIs, and the city state’s Nanyang Technological University. It is among the hundreds of CIs around the world that have in recent months faced growing scrutiny, following assertions by US President Donald Trump that they are part of Beijing’s propaganda and influence operations.

Asked whether he was worried that the learning centre could be acting in the interests of the Chinese government, Cheong brushed it off. “This has been taken out of context and policitised,” he said.

Still, the Trump administration in August designated the Washington-based Confucius Institute US Centre as a foreign mission of the Chinese Communist Party, meaning it would be required to submit reports to the American government about its funding, personnel and curriculum.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in September said he hoped all Confucius Institutes on American university campuses would be shut by the end of 2020, noting what he said were “risks” associated with them. There are 75 Confucius Institutes in the US, according to the US Department of State website, 65 of which are on US university campuses, with the rest functioning as stand-alone organisations.

The Trump administration has accused Confucius Institutes of being a front for the Chinese Communist Party. Photo: AP

Analysts suggested that the operations of the institutes in Southeast Asia could, in some ways, alter locals’ perceptions towards China – even on contentious issues like the South China Sea territorial disputes – through their expansive list of programmes and outreach. But they also noted that the attacks on the institutes by Western countries would hardly dent interest in local communities in the region for their services.