(TibetanReview.net, Apr03’25) – Following ramped up scrutiny on the education centres in the country in recent years over concerns that Beijing is using them to spread propaganda and spy on Chinese international students, six universities in Australia have quietly closed Chinese government-linked Confucius Institutes (CIs) on their campuses, reported bbc.com Apr 1.
China claims its CIs, which offer Chinese language and cultural classes overseas, are a “bridge reinforcing friendship” with the world.
However, this has failed to allay growing global concerns about the Chinese government’s reach overseas through such education centres, with universities in America and Europe also choosing to close some of their branches.
These closures mean nearly half of all the CIs at Australia’s universities have been shuttered. Seven others remain open, the report said, citing the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
Confucius centres have now been removed from the campuses of the University of Melbourne, the University of Queensland (UQ), the University of Western Australia (UWA) and the University of New South Wales (UNSW), and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT).
Several universities are stated to have cited disruptions caused by the Covid pandemic as the reason for not renewing their CI contracts. Nevertheless, the real reason for closing the CI has emerged as clear.
The report said a spokesperson for UNSW said the university was developing its own programme in Chinese studies and was committed to “encouraging open dialogue in the China-Australia bilateral relationship”.
The report noted that in recent years, Australia’s federal government had indicated it would not allow more of the centres – which are linked to the Chinese Communist Party – to open in the country.
It also required universities to provide more transparency about the institutes’ teachings and in some cases registering them on the Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme.
A UQ spokesperson has said its Confucius Institute closed when the contract expired in Dec 2024, and it had “not been given any direction by the government”.
Also, the University of Melbourne closed their CI in Aug 2024 after it was established through a partnership with Nanjing University in 2007. A university spokesperson has said the institution already offers a variety of Chinese language and Asia programmes and had “no additional need to renew” the agreement.
However, a University of Adelaide spokesperson has not confirmed their CI had been shuttered, saying it continues to foster “connections with other countries, including China” through partnerships and education collaboration.
A major attraction for the schools to open CIs is that it is fully funded by the Chinese government which also provides the teachers and the teaching materials, making them veritable Chinese government propaganda and censorship centres on Western soil.
Indeed, Human Rights Watch said in a 2019 report that Confucius Institutes were “extensions of the Chinese government” that censored discussions of politically sensitive issues to Beijing, the report noted.
Also, the ABC was stated to have reported in 2019 that applicants for volunteer teaching positions at the institutes were required to demonstrate political loyalty to the Chinese government.