Confucius Institutes

Confucius Institutes (CI; ) are public educational and cultural promotion programs administered by Hanban (officially the Office of Chinese Language Council International) since 2004, an affiliate of the Chinese Ministry of Education. The institutes operate in co-operation with local affiliate colleges and universities around the world, and financing is shared between Hanban and the host institutions. The related Confucius Classroom program partners with local secondary schools or school districts to provide teachers and instructional materials. In July 2020, Hanban was renamed to Center for Language Education and Cooperation, while oversight of the Confucius Institute was handed over to , a self-described "non-governmental private organization" (GONGO). The supposed aim of the program is to promote Chinese language and culture, support local Chinese teaching internationally, and facilitate cultural exchanges. Officials from China have compared Confucius Institutes to language and culture promotion organizations such as Portugal's Instituto Camões, Britain's British Council, France's Alliance Française, Italy's Società Dante Alighieri, Spain's Instituto Cervantes and Germany's Goethe-Institut—several of them named for an iconic cultural figure identified with that country, as Confucius is identified with China. This is disputed by commentators and activists, who point out that unlike other language/culture organizations, many Confucius Institutes operate directly on university campuses thus giving rise to unique concerns related to academic freedom and political influence. Being affiliated with the Chinese Ministry of Education, CIs have received increasing skepticism over its censorship of content taught, such as topics related to individual freedoms and democracy, Tiananmen Square protests, Taiwan, Tibet and Xinjiang. Such concerns have led to a backlash from academics and governments, resulting in many universities closing their Confucius Institutes. Confucius Institutes are used as a form of "soft power" by the Chinese government, which spends approximately $10 billion a year on CIs and related programs to exercise these initiatives, Senior Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials, including Li Changchun, have admitted that Confucius Institutes are "an important part of China's overseas propaganda set-up", while general secretary Xi Jinping in 2013 proclaimed that the intentions are to "give a good Chinese narrative".