The government of China is promoting Chinese language and culture at “Confucius Institutes” at 97 schools in the United States. Should we care?

Some people, including university officials, are worried that the institutes are propaganda arms of a socialist state. Well, actually, there is no doubt about that, but are they curbing on-campus freedom to explore Chinese topics that the government doesn’t want explored?

The University of Chicago and Penn State have dropped their connections with the institutes, and a congressional committee held hearings earlier this month on Chinese government influence on academia.

Here’s a quotation from Harry Painter’s article on the Pope Center site discussing the institutes:

NC State illustrates the danger Confucius Institutes pose to academic freedom. In 2009, the university had invited the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader, to speak on campus. NC State’s Confucius Institute director Bailian Li reportedly interfered. According to a 2011 Bloomberg article, Li warned Provost Warwick Arden that the speech would dampen “some of the strong relationships we were developing with China.” The speech was canceled.

If they are attempting to curb free expression, they have a lot of opportunities. The NC State’s institute alone also runs “Confucius Classrooms” (mini-institutes) at two North Carolina community colleges, a private college, and a Raleigh, N.C., high school. And the University of North Carolina’s Center for International Understanding, a university-wide organization, operates 43 Confucius Classrooms at elementary, middle, and high schools.