The Chinese government continues to spread its influence in America, whether it's buying up farmland or media companies. That influence also extends to college campuses, despite prior warnings by the FBI and efforts to stop it. Months after many U.S. universities closed their Confucius Institutes--which helped spread Chinese government propaganda to American college students under the guise of Chinese culture studies--some schools are opening new Chinese-sponsored programs which look very similar.
"In some cases these (Confucius Institutes) were handed off to other schools, sometimes they were handed off to the K-12 level, sometimes they were simply rebranded as something else, usually under the international studies program," says Ian Oxnevad, researcher with the National Association of Scholars (NAS), which did an extensive report on this issue.
Oxnevad tells KTRH these programs are harmful in a variety of ways. "You're losing intellectual property, while Chinese dissidents are sometimes followed and intimidated through these institutes," he says. "You also have simple censorship of topics like Tiananmen Square, treatment of Uighurs, the status of Tibet, and other things."
In a 2019 U.S. Senate hearing, FBI Director Christopher Wray warned that Confucius Institutes are a "source of concern" and part of a "soft power strategy" by China. That led to the institutes being shuddered on most American campuses...but the NAS report finds some schools launching what's called the Chinese Language and Culture Program--which critics say sounds like Confucius Institute 2.0.
"They're essentially doing the same things, that really hasn't changed," says Oxnevad. "It's just simply happening under a new name."
These programs are sponsored by the Chinese government in partnership with the host schools, with the Chinese sending visiting scholars to the U.S., and having a direct say in textbooks and curriculum. Oxnevad believes schools should take more responsibility for allowing sometimes-hostile foreign influence on their campus. "This is a way for schools to obtain money from abroad," he says. "With many of these programs, funding comes from China directly through universities in China, and in many cases the schools simply do not understand what they are dealing with, and are happy to take the money."