Confucius Institutes: Chinese Cultural Exchange, or Trojan Horses for Penetration of US Colleges?

Big Ideas with Ben Weingarten ^ | 2018-07-11 | Ben Weingarten

[fredericbastiat1]

For this week’s Big Ideas with Ben Weingarten podcast, my guest was Rachelle Peterson, director of research projects at the invaluable National Association of Scholars, and author of the groundbreaking report "Outsourced to China: Confucius Institutes and Soft Power in American Higher Education."

Peterson’s investigation into these Chinese Communist Party-backed purported cultural exchange and language studies centers on U.S. college campuses — which she demonstrated were actually used to propagandize and penetrate our schools — preceded the recent disclosure of an FBI investigation into Confucius Institutes and a legislative effort to probe and counter their malign activities.

Given China’s increasingly bellicose stance towards the West, and its flexing of its soft power muscles, I had Peterson on to discuss this highly illustrative microcosm of China’s efforts, including:

• What Confucius Institutes are, and how the Chinese government is responsible for controlling virtually every aspect of their operations
• Confucius Institutes’ propagandizing on college campuses to whitewash Chinese governmental abuses and create a more favorable public image in the West
• Efforts to stifle academic freedom and criticism of China by way of Confucius Institutes’ contracts
• The ideological and financial reasoning behind why U.S. academic institutions invite Confucius Institutes to their campuses, and the leverage the Institutes provide China
• Rachelle’s chilling findings in extensively examining 12 Confucius Institutes, including the fears of several of those interviewed to go on record
• Blowback from the Chinese government in the wake of the release of Rachelle’s report
• What makes Confucius Institutes unique relative to other foreign cultural exchange programs on college campuses
• Current legislative efforts by members of U.S. Congress to scrutinize and counter the efforts of Confucius Institutes
• And much more

You can find the episode on iTunes, everywhere else podcasts are found or download the episode directly here.

[no-to-illegals]

I’m a hugh proponent of protection.

[Paine in the Neck]

The Aga Khan showed decades ago how to buy influence at US universities. Next to politicians, there’s nothing like universities whoring for money.

[Steely Tom]

So... what? They’re going to infiltrate college campuses and try to make them more communist?

There have been foreign-funded organizations on college campuses for decades. They can join the crowd if they want, compete with the drug cartels and Hamas.

[JayAr36]

Confucius Institutes: Chinese Cultural Exchange, or Trojan Horses for Penetration of US Colleges?

If the Chinese send their people to our colleges it is they that will be corrupted.