Canada’s largest school district has officially severed its ties to a Confucius Institute language school subsidized and controlled by Chinese government.
The Toronto District School Board moved on Wednesday to terminate its agreement with the institute, which would have offered after-school Chinese language and culture classes, over concerns about China’s human rights records and restrictions on academic freedom.
Unlike language and culture promotion organizations such as British Council, Alliance Française and Goethe-Institut, Confucius Institutes operate within established universities, colleges, and secondary schools around the world, providing funding, teachers and educational materials.
Earlier this month, Pennsylvania State University also terminated its partnership with the Confucius Institute, delivering a setback to China’s soft-power push on American college campuses.
This decision by Penn State officials came just one week after a similar move by the University of Chicago to end its relationship with the institute over what professors and administrators described as impasse during negotiations to renew and agreement between the two sides.
The Confucius Institute program began in 2004 and is overseen by Hanban (officially the Office of Chinese Language Council International). The program is governed by a council whose top-level members are drawn from Communist Party of China leadership and various state ministries.
While several high-profile schools jettisoned the program, other prominent schools, such as Columbia University, UCLA, Colorado State University and the University of Oklahoma, continue to welcome Confucius Institute on their campuses, according to the CI website.
Just this Tuesday, the Confucius Institute expanded to the island country of Cyprus by initiating cooperation with the University of Cyprus.
Meanwhile, the state-run English newspaper China Daily runs an op-ed today, stating “the Department of Education in Hunan province sought to terminate its cooperative relationship with the Toronto District School Board on Oct 23 over a Confucius Institute program”.
After repudiating the “unfounded suspicions and opposition” to the “cultural project”, the op-ed also insinuates that “some people apparently need a new pair of corrective lenses to help them see the institutes in a more objective and impartial way.”
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