UK: Sunak In, Confucius Institutes Out?
10/28/2022RUTH INGRAMA+ | A-The new British Prime Minister has promised to disband the country’s Confucius Institutes, a tool of Beijing’s propaganda.
by Ruth Ingram
The murky depths that Beijing will go to push pro-CCP
It stands for Chinese Communist Party, which from 1949 controls all social and political life in China. Members of CCP should in principle be self-proclaimed atheists. The ultimate goal of CCP is suppression of religion. However, how this goal is achieved has varied during time, and after Chairman Mao’s death the CCP has acknowledged that, notwithstanding its efforts, religions may survive in China for a long time.
" href="https://bitterwinter.org/Vocabulary/ccp/" target="_blank" data-gt-translate-attributes="[{"attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"}]" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s; color: rgb(221, 51, 51) !important; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(221, 51, 51) !important;">CCP propaganda and stifle dissent overseas have been plumbed in a new report on Confucius Institutes in the UK .
Far from being the once assumed “soft power” initiative to promote Chinese culture and language within the UK, their purpose as a direct and lavishly funded propaganda arm of the CCP
It stands for Chinese Communist Party, which from 1949 controls all social and political life in China. Members of CCP should in principle be self-proclaimed atheists. The ultimate goal of CCP is suppression of religion. However, how this goal is achieved has varied during time, and after Chairman Mao’s death the CCP has acknowledged that, notwithstanding its efforts, religions may survive in China for a long time.
" href="https://bitterwinter.org/Vocabulary/ccp/" target="_blank" data-gt-translate-attributes="[{"attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"}]" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s; color: rgb(221, 51, 51) !important; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(221, 51, 51) !important;">CCP has been uncovered in revelations by the Asia Studies Centre of the Henry Jackson Society.
Not only has Beijing ploughed a staggering £33,426,300 into the UK institutes, with another ten million or so unaccounted for, but has filled them with around 250 majority Han Chinese loyalist staff who have pledged allegiance to the regime, and are determined to peddle Beijing’s agenda into British life and business.
Governments have been slow to wake up to the pernicious influence of the more than 550 Confucius Institutes scattered around the world, despite myriad studies proving their “incompatibility” with democratic societies, particularly in the academic field.
Despite being described in 2014 as “academic malware” by the University of Chicago’s Professor Marshal Sahlins, who advocated their closure, and as “China’s Trojan Horse” by the Heritage Foundation, the UK’s honeymoon continued regardless, and by the time of Xi’s visit in 2015, 27 centers had opened throughout the country.
Not until 2019 were the 30 establishments, operating under the umbrella of prestigious universities, with tentacles permeating 100 schools, politics, academia and business interests, investigated by the Conservative Party Human Rights Commission, and proven wanting.
Operating under the auspices of the recently M15-flagged up “United Front Work Department
(UFWD 統戰部). An intelligence agency established by the CCP authorities, it is used to gather information about and manage relations with democratic parties, intellectuals, dissenters, academics, religious and ethnic groups, and other individuals of influence, like business people, that are not directly associated with the Party inside China and abroad. Its main aim is to eliminate anti-communist forces or incite anyone outside the Party to support the CCP and its government. UFWD supervises nine internal bureaus, and among them, the second bureau is responsible for dealing with religious affairs; the seventh is in charge of Tibet-related matters, and the ninth deals with Xinjiang. UFWD also administers the five officially-sanctioned religious organizations. 
" href="https://bitterwinter.org/Vocabulary/united-front-work-department/" target="_blank" data-gt-translate-attributes="[{"attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"}]" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s; color: rgb(221, 51, 51) !important; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(221, 51, 51) !important;">United Front Work Department” set up to specifically advance the CCP
It stands for Chinese Communist Party, which from 1949 controls all social and political life in China. Members of CCP should in principle be self-proclaimed atheists. The ultimate goal of CCP is suppression of religion. However, how this goal is achieved has varied during time, and after Chairman Mao’s death the CCP has acknowledged that, notwithstanding its efforts, religions may survive in China for a long time.
" href="https://bitterwinter.org/Vocabulary/ccp/" target="_blank" data-gt-translate-attributes="[{"attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"}]" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s; color: rgb(221, 51, 51) !important; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(221, 51, 51) !important;">CCP’s influence abroad, and to leach vital technological expertise from the UK, their task is to ensure a veil is drawn over PRC activities.
The report slammed as “intolerable” UK government actions in allowing an institution devoted to eradicating democracy, and dumbing down the oppression taking place within its own borders, to exist within its own corridors of academic enquiry.
The Government must wake up to CCP
It stands for Chinese Communist Party, which from 1949 controls all social and political life in China. Members of CCP should in principle be self-proclaimed atheists. The ultimate goal of CCP is suppression of religion. However, how this goal is achieved has varied during time, and after Chairman Mao’s death the CCP has acknowledged that, notwithstanding its efforts, religions may survive in China for a long time.
" href="https://bitterwinter.org/Vocabulary/ccp/" target="_blank" data-gt-translate-attributes="[{"attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"}]" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s; color: rgb(221, 51, 51) !important; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(221, 51, 51) !important;">CCP tactics to inveigle itself within the fabric of the UK, say the authors of the report, and not take at face value attempts to rebrand the Confucius Institutes as innocent educational establishments.
Far from being the guileless cultural promoters they claim to be, the report alerts decision makers and policy readers to their malign influence and recommends a thorough overhaul of Confucius Institutes practices regarding free speech, their staff recruitment, transparency over funding and its purposes, and their relationship with the Chinese Communist Party.
Long-standing over-reliance on Beijing for Chinese language acquisition must be stemmed and other avenues, particularly Taiwan, should be explored, say the authors.
More attention should be paid to pro-China political statements made by Institutes, particularly those responding negatively to pro-democracy activism in the West. Citing the case of an instructor hired by the Confucius Institute at McMaster University in Canada, who was compelled to sign away her right to practice Falun Gong
(法輪功). A large Chinese new religious movement, established by Li Hongzhi (李洪志) in 1992 and teaching both a variety of qi gong exercises and a spirituality rooted in the Three Teachings, with some New Age variations and overtones. Originally tolerated and even praised by the CCP as part of a legitimate revival of traditional Chinese health practices, it created concern in the authorities because of its rapid growth. It was banned in 1999, included in the list of the <em>xie jiao</em>, and severely persecuted.
" href="https://bitterwinter.org/Vocabulary/falun-gong/" target="_blank" data-gt-translate-attributes="[{"attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"}]" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s; color: rgb(221, 51, 51) !important; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(221, 51, 51) !important;">Falun Gong, and whose case later resulted in the closure of that institute at McMaster, the report advocated more protection for overseas Chinese citizens who dare to speak out.
Universities should beware the conflict of interests in inviting Confucius Institutes personnel to teach on contemporary China and the consequent threat to deeper understanding of Middle Kingdom politics, Human Rights
The fundamental rights of all human beings to life, freedom, justice, and safety, defined by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948.
" href="https://bitterwinter.org/Vocabulary/human-rights/" target="_blank" data-gt-translate-attributes="[{"attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"}]" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s; color: rgb(221, 51, 51) !important; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(221, 51, 51) !important;">human rights, social problems, ethnic relations and territorial claims to areas such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, Tibet and Xinjiang
(新疆, officially the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region). The "autonomous” region of China whose largest ethnic group is Uyghurs, with another 7% of Ethnic Kazakhs, and Islam as the majority religion. The World Uyghur Congress and other Uyghur organizations do not accept the name Xinjiang, which means "New Frontier” or "New Borderland” and was imposed by Imperial China in 1884, after it conquered or rather reconquered the region, that it had already occupied between 1760 and 1860. Uyghurs prefer the name "East Turkestan,” which was also used by two ephemeral independent states, known as the First (1933) and the Second (1944–49) East Turkestan Republics. In order to avoid the choice between "Xinjiang” and "East Turkestan,” both problematic designations, American scholar Rian Thum suggested to adopt the ancient name of the region, Altishahr ("Six Cities”), which is however rarely used outside of scholarly circles.
" href="https://bitterwinter.org/Vocabulary/xinjiang/" target="_blank" data-gt-translate-attributes="[{"attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"}]" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s; color: rgb(221, 51, 51) !important; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(221, 51, 51) !important;">Xinjiang. In that vein, naively embarking on collaborations that even benefit Beijing militarily must be terminated.
If the Institutes are allowed to continue, those in partnership with them must realize the opposing world views held by each of the countries, observe the authors.
“Regardless of how effectively they uphold these principles, British universities are committed to free enquiry, freedom of speech, equality and freedom from discrimination, honest teaching, and the pursuit of knowledge,” they say.
In contrast, “regardless of how often it claims to pursue the greater good, the CCP
It stands for Chinese Communist Party, which from 1949 controls all social and political life in China. Members of CCP should in principle be self-proclaimed atheists. The ultimate goal of CCP is suppression of religion. However, how this goal is achieved has varied during time, and after Chairman Mao’s death the CCP has acknowledged that, notwithstanding its efforts, religions may survive in China for a long time.
" href="https://bitterwinter.org/Vocabulary/ccp/" target="_blank" data-gt-translate-attributes="[{"attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"}]" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s; color: rgb(221, 51, 51) !important; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(221, 51, 51) !important;">CCP jails the enquiring, suppresses speech, destroys ethnic minorities and political dissidents, lies to its people, and spreads disinformation at home and abroad.”
Confucius Institutes should have never seen the light of day twenty years ago, was the damning verdict of the report. “But this was never a partnership of equals,” it concludes. “Instead, it is the kind of combination that poses a fundamental threat to one of Britain’s most important institutions.”
Legislation is underway in the U.K. to enable Confucius Institutes’ partnerships to be disentangled, in the form of an amendment to the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill, but its implementation would be arbitrary.
Instead, a more permanent solution might be on the table in the form of a vow made by the UK’s newly appointed Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, who promised in his leadership bid, to disband the country’s Confucius Institutes.
Having branded China the “number one threat” to domestic and global security, Sunak vowed to “kick the CCP
It stands for Chinese Communist Party, which from 1949 controls all social and political life in China. Members of CCP should in principle be self-proclaimed atheists. The ultimate goal of CCP is suppression of religion. However, how this goal is achieved has varied during time, and after Chairman Mao’s death the CCP has acknowledged that, notwithstanding its efforts, religions may survive in China for a long time.
" href="https://bitterwinter.org/Vocabulary/ccp/" target="_blank" data-gt-translate-attributes="[{"attribute":"data-cmtooltip", "format":"html"}]" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s; color: rgb(221, 51, 51) !important; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(221, 51, 51) !important;">CCP out of our universities.”
“Enough is enough. For too long, politicians in Britain and across the West have rolled out the red carpet and turned a blind eye to China’s nefarious activity and ambitions.” “I will change this on Day 1 as PM,” he promised.
The report’s authors might have an ally waiting in the wings. The days of Beijing’s influence through its Confucius Institute mouthpiece in the UK might yet be numbered.
