Before the 2020 election, Republicans in the Senate were making real strides towards closing these centers on campus. The issue should be revisited.
Campus Reform reports:
University of Akron to close its CCP propaganda hub after pressure from CongressIn a university-wide email sent on Monday, Nov. 8, the University of Akron announced it will be closing its Confucius Institute effective June 2022. The decision ends a 13 year partnership with Henan University, a public university in Kaifeng, China, that fueled the Institute’s operation.The decision will leave the Ohio school in compliance with the National Defense Authorization Act passed by Congress in 2021. Under the NDAA, universities that continue to engage in partnership with Confucius Institutes would be restricted access to Department of Defense research funding. The university directed Campus Reform to a statement, explaining that it had already “begun a transitional process to phase out its operations.“The University of Akron has developed a broad research partnership with the Department of Defense and with other funding agencies and organizations at different levels of the federal and state government. In order to meet the requirements of the NDAA, The University of Akron has decided to close its Confucius Institute, effective June 30, 2022,” reads the statement.Former Chinese government official and propaganda minister Liu Yushan admitted that the Chinese government uses Confucius Institutes to “actively carry out international propaganda battles against issues such as Tibet, Xinjiang, Taiwan, human rights and Falun gong,” according to a 2018 Politico report.University of Akron is one of many institutions to close their Confucius Institute doors following the decision. Campus Reform has reported on these incidents as they occur, keeping track of the rise and fall of the number through an interactive map.As previously reported, 56 Confucius Institutes were operating in the United States at the beginning of 2021. Since first publication of the map in March, 14 have ceased operations with more vowing to dismiss their connections by the end of the year.
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