torsdag 20. august 2020

US targeting of Confucius Institutes is just the latest push to gain free and open access to China

Almost every day, the United States takes further steps in a new cold war with China. Sometimes the measures are military, sometimes political, sometimes economic and sometimes cultural. But they all have the same target: the assets and public profile of the Chinese government. On August 13, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the labelling of Confucius Institutes in the US as foreign missions of China.

The obvious intention of the directive is to establish administrative hurdles and brand the institutes – which offer Chinese language courses and lectures on China, including Chinese politics – as hostile communist propaganda organs, to discourage American universities from hosting them.