Confucius Institutes (CI) in British Universities are damaging the UK’s understanding of China, a report said on Wednesday.
The report (pdf), published by foreign policy and national security think tank Henry Jackson Society (HJS), said that out of the 3o CIs in the UK only four were found to be operating within their remit of “language and culture” that is often attributed to them.
Most institutes have been involved in other activities such as informing government policy and politicians, brokering science and technology partnerships, offering consultancy services to businesses, and “cooperating with UK organisations that work with the United Front Work Department (UFWD), a CCP [Chinese Communist Party] agency the interference activities of which were recently highlighted by MI5.”…