Confucius Institute Reopens in U.S. Under New Name

It was reported on June 29th that according to the National Association of Scholars, the Confucius Institute, a controversial Beijing-backed center for language and cultural learning that was mostly closed in the United States after being designated as a foreign mission by the State Department, is now being rebranded and reopened.

As of June 21st, out of the 118 Confucius Institutes that once existed in the United States, 104 had been closed and four were in the process of closing, according to the Voice of America.

The report says that at least 28 have replaced their Confucius Institutes with similar programs, and at least 58 maintain close relationships with their former Confucius Institute partners.

Perry Link, a professor of Chinese studies at the University of California, Riverside, was surprised by the June 21st report, which updated the March 2018 report.

Link told VOA that he was initially shocked by “how many Confucius Institutes have been shut. I didn’t expect the rate of closures to be so high. Second, they still exist in another way with another name. I think this is expected. I just didn’t expect it to happen so soon.”

Critics regard these institutions as tools for monitoring and interfering with campus speeches and events, as well as the Chinese Communist Party’s overseas propaganda machine. As an example, the Confucius Institute opposed North Carolina State University’s plan to invite the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, to speak on campus in 2009.