UK will require Confucius Institutes to Declare the Source of Funds

According to a report by the Voice of America on June 15, a group of bipartisan British MPs proposed an amendment that requires British higher education institutions to cooperate with foreign institutions to teach foreign languages, cultures and provide exchange programs. The government must explain the source of funding and related terms. The UK Government can demand that the collaboration be terminated if it involves risks to freedom of speech and academic freedom. The British Government said it would require local Confucius Institutes to declare the source of funding.

Keynes, the Conservative MP who led the amendment, was concerned that the Confucius Institute would “stifle freedom of speech and freedom of thought on British university campuses.” The cooperation between UK universities and Confucius Institutes may be used as a tool to attack the UK. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Britain are at war. Conservative MP Shi Zhian pointed out that the United States and Germany have determined that the Confucius Institute is not an academic institution, but an institution with a hidden purpose to intimidate and monitor the behavior of Chinese students and other students in British universities.