WASHINGTON—A new report warns that China has rebranded its Confucius Institutes (CI) in American universities. Out of the 118 CIs in America, about 105 have closed or announced closures. However, at least 38 colleges have replaced their closed CI programs with similar alternatives, according to the report by the National Association of Scholars (NAS), a conservative research and advocacy organization.
CIs are funded by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which picks and pays for textbooks and selects and pays Chinese nationals who come to the United States to teach Chinese language, culture, and history.
Li Changchun, a standing member of the CCP’s Politburo, said in April 2007 that CIs were “an important part of China’s overseas propaganda setup.” A 2018 report by the U.S.–China Economic and Security Review Commission said CIs had “longstanding and formal ties” to the CCP’s United Front Work Department, an agency responsible for coordinating the CCP’s influence operations….