Utah Lawmakers Introduce Resolution to Close Its Remaining Confucius Institutes
“citing security concerns and influence from the Chinese Communist Party”
Trump and Republicans in Congress were beginning to do this nationwide and Biden shut it down. Individual states should follow Utah’s lead.
Campus Reform reports:
Utah lawmakers seek to close remaining Confucius Institutes
A new resolution in the Utah state legislature seeks to close the two remaining Confucius Institutes in Utah, citing security concerns and influence from the Chinese Communist Party.
Introduced Feb. 1, the Joint Resolution to Protect Utah’s Institutions of Higher Education from Chinese Communist Party Influence (H.J.R. 8), “calls on Utah’s institutions of higher education to close their Confucius institutes and disclose certain information related to Confucius institutes to the Legislature.”
Introduced by Republican representative Candice Pierucci of Utah District 52, the resolution calls for education “free from manipulation of the Chinese Communist Party and its proxies.”
H.J.R. 8 mentions concerns by the FBI and the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) over the threat Confucius Institutes pose to academic freedom. Further, over 45 institutes have closed since 2014 and the last two in Utah would close by December 2022, if the resolution is passed.
The two remaining Confucius Institutes reside at the University of Utah and Southern Utah University (SUU).
The University of Utah was “already in the process of winding down their Confucius Institute and are completely supportive of the resolution,” Rep. Pierucci told Campus Reform. Further, the representative has been working with SUU to form a new and fully university-operated Chinese language program.
“Students should not be taught a sanitized history of China, they should be receiving a comprehensive education enlightened with real facts and a serious understanding of the human rights violations perpetrated by the Chinese government,” Pierucci further stated.
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