Scholars: China Government Gets Foothold on U.S. Campuses

Confucius InstituteWASHINGTON ― China’s authoritarian government is gaining a foothold on American campuses by funding dozens of institutes that project a rose-tinted view of the Asian nation that compromises the academic integrity of U.S. universities, a congressional hearing was told Thursday.

Scholars of China testified that these state-funded Confucius Institutes teach nonpolitical subjects like Chinese language and culture but suppress discussion on sensitive topics like Tibet and the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown on democracy protesters.

The hearing was chaired by House Republican Rep. Chris Smith, an arch critic of Beijing, who questioned whether American education was “for sale.”

Students from China now make up 31 percent of all international students in the United States. Last year, Chinese students in U.S. colleges and universities contributed $8 billion to the U.S. economy, according to the Commerce Department.

U.S. colleges such as New York University are also opening campuses in China, hoping to tap into the country’s enormous, growing pool of students.

Geng Shuang, spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said China-U.S. educational exchange is carried out on a voluntary basis and respects the academic independence and integrity of all educational institutions.

Perry Link, a China expert at the University of California at Riverside, said independent scholar-to-scholar exchanges with China should be encouraged.