President Joe Biden has revoked a policy that the Trump administration attempted to enact during their waning days in office that would have forced American universities to reveal cooperation with chapters of the Confucius Institute which last summer the US State Department labeled as Chinese foreign missions.
According to the Daily Caller, China launched the Confucius Institute in 2004 to promote Chinese language and culture, but the organization has been accused of being a "Trojan horse for Chinese-state propaganda." The organization is funded and staffed by the Chinese Ministry of Education, and has been known to censor curricula and events.
Trump enacted a policy "that would compel primary, secondary, and postsecondary institutions to disclose all contracts and transactions with the Confucius Institute." Schools that do not report information would lose certification for the Student and Exchange Visitor Program, according to Axios.
According to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Biden terminated the policy on January 26.
Director of the Center for American Seapower at the Hudson Institute Seth Cropsey told Campus Reform "that the policy could be part of the Biden administration recalibrating on Sino-American relations" and hopes that the administration is not trying to "placate China." He added that it is “not normal practice, and for good reason — namely, academic independence and freedom — to allow an outside organization... to say nothing of a country that is a strategic competitor to the United States, to be able to choose professors in a program… within a university.”
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in August that the Confucius Institute is "an entity advancing Beijing’s global propaganda and malign influence campaign on US campuses and K-12 classrooms," and that the organization is "funded by the PRC and part of the Chinese Communist Party’s global influence and propaganda apparatus." Last month he urged Confucius Institute to close.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) added a provision to the National Defense Authorization Act that prohibited the funding of Confucius Institutes which was signed by former President Donald Trump.
Campus Reform also reported that American universities accepted more than $24 million from Chinese Communist Party sources since 2015, and "much of this funding was directed toward resources for schools' Confucius Institute chapters."
According to Axios, a report from the Senate’s Permanent Select Committee on Investigations found that almost 70 percent of schools receiving more than $250,000 from organizations affiliated with the Chinese government did not report the funding even though they are legally required to do so.
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