WALL STREET JOURNAL Chicago Teaches Beijing a Lesson The University of Chicago kicks the Confucius Institute—one of Chinas top overseas propaganda programs—off the campus. How long until other American colleges follow suit? By L. Gordon Crovitz Sept. 28, 2014 6:55 p.m. ET 38 COMMENTS In being snubbed by the University of Chicago, the Chinese Communist Party is in fine company. In the 1950s the Chicago faculty famously refused to grant Queen Elizabeth II an honorary degree when she visited the Windy City, cheekily insisting that Buckingham Palace first produce scholarly research she had done. The universitys announcement this month that it wont renew its Confucius Institute on campus challenges one of Beijings top propaganda efforts. It may prompt other schools to consider ending the operations, which are set up and controlled by the Communist Party. Beijing launched the institute a decade ago to take advantage of global interest in learning Mandarin. Schools welcomed the program because Beijing covered all the expenses. Last year, China spent more than $275 million on institutes and classrooms at some 1,100 campuses in 120 countries, including 700 primary and secondary schools. What administrators assumed would be apolitical language instruction has turned out to be Beijings highly controlled way of teaching its version of Chinese history, politics and culture. Lectures, conferences, films and exhibits have a Communist Party spin previously seen only within Chinas censored borders. Vice Premier Liu Yandong is the chairwoman of Chinas governing council that oversees the Confucius Institute, which includes representatives of a dozen ministries such as Foreign Affairs and the State Council Information Office. The partys head of propaganda in 2007 called the institute an important part of the pattern of Chinas overseas propaganda. ENLARGE Vice Premier Liu Yandong Getty Images Unlike language and culture programs sponsored by the British Council, Alliance Francaise and Germanys Goethe-Institut, the Confucius Institute is located on campuses and becomes part of the curriculum. For many smaller universities and grade schools, the institute is the primary, or only, place to learn about China. Beijing requires that the Confucius Institute programs abide by the laws of China. McMaster University in Canada severed its contract last year when an institute instructor, Sonia Zhao, had to hide her belief in Falun Gong, which is banned by China. She also disclosed prohibitions against topics such as the Tiananmen Square protests, Tibet, Taiwan and Chinese dissidents: During my training in Beijing they told us, Dont talk about that. If the student insists, you just try to change the topic or say something the Chinese Communist Party would prefer. The Confucius Institutes at North Carolina State and Australias University of Sydney blocked the Dalai Lama from speaking on campus. At Canadas Waterloo University in 2008, the institute mobilized students to defend repression in Tibet. The Chinese official who directly oversees the institutes, Xu Lin, earlier this year ordered the destruction of printed materials at a European Association for Chinese Studies conference in Portugal that referred to Taiwanese organizations. The University of Chicago has a long history of trying to keep partisan politics and governments off campus. When I was an undergraduate at the school in the 1970s, there was uproar over an award to Robert McNamara for his work on world peace, with liberals objecting to his role in the Vietnam War and conservatives outraged by his work at the World Bank. Both sides agreed to revalidate the Queen Elizabeth precedent to avoid mixing politics and scholarship. Marshall Sahlins, an emeritus professor, led the fight at Chicago against the Confucius Institute. His article in the Nation last year, China U, quoted a colleague in the East Asian department admitting to a certain amount of self-censorship at the institute. That included suppressing discussion of the Dalai Lama. More than 100 members of the Chicago faculty signed a petition against the institute, saying it subjects the universitys academic program to the political constraints on free speech and belief that are specific to the Peoples Republic of China. The student newspaper Chicago Maroon quoted history professor Bruce Cumings : American universities should not be taking money or institute funds from governments that are jailing professors and that do not provide academic freedom in their own country. The American Association of University Professors recently urged an end to affiliations with the institutes, which function as an arm of the Chinese state and are allowed to ignore academic freedom. Canadian professors took a similar position. The Toronto school board this year postponed a planned launch. With Chicagos decision to rid its campus of an outpost of the Chinese Communist Party, universities with a prominent institute presence such as Stanford and Columbia will have to reconsider. Its time to say zaijian—goodbye—and good riddance to Beijings propaganda presence on campuses.
Posted on: Tue, 30 Sep 2014 03:00:15 +0000
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