[Global Network Reporter Li Dongyao] The Trump administration's black hands are going to the field of Sino-US cultural exchanges? A Bloomberg report on the 12th quoted an anonymous person familiar with the matter as saying that the U.S. State Department will announce as early as Thursday (13th) local time that Confucius Institutes in the United States will need to be registered as "foreign missions."

  Bloomberg believes that this decision will mean that Confucius Institutes are "substantially owned or effectively controlled" by foreign governments, and this will allow these institutes to accept administrative requirements similar to (foreign embassies and consulates in the United States). Bloomberg said that the U.S. State Department has not immediately responded to reporters' requests for comment.

  According to statistics from the National Association Of Scholars, a non-partisan research institution that studies Confucius Institutes, 80 of the approximately 550 Confucius Institutes in the world are located in the US, including Stanford University and Savannah in Georgia. State University, etc.

  The report mentioned that for a long time, these Confucius Institutes have been the target of some Chinese hawks in the US political circles, including Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio, who asked the state schools to terminate the relevant agreements. Bloomberg said that there are conflicts between China and the United States over multiple issues such as Hong Kong and 5G technology. This move by the United States may further intensify tensions with China.

  Last year, the U.S. Senate Standing Committee of Inquiry issued an investigation report on Confucius Institutes, stating that these institutions try to influence American public opinion and should be restricted. In this regard, the spokesperson of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasized at the time that individual individuals and institutions in the United States are now baselessly politicizing the Confucius Institute, a normal Sino-US educational exchange project, showing a typical Cold War mentality. I hope these people can truly consider the legitimate and urgent needs of the American public, students, teachers and parents to learn Chinese and understand Chinese culture, and not to politicize the exchanges between the Chinese and American peoples.

  Prior to this, the Trump administration had listed some Chinese media organizations in the United States as "foreign missions." In response to the U.S. classification of China Central Television, China News Service, People’s Daily, and Global Times as "foreign missions" in the U.S. agencies, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian emphasized in June this year that China strongly urges the U.S. Abandon the Cold War mentality and ideological prejudice, and immediately stop and correct this wrong approach that harms others and disadvantages oneself. Otherwise, China will have to make the necessary and legitimate response.

  Zhao Li insisted that this is the second time that the US has listed Chinese media in the US as a "foreign mission." This is another example of the U.S.'s naked political suppression of the Chinese media. It will further seriously interfere with the normal reporting activities of Chinese media in the U.S. It will also further expose the hypocrisy of the so-called freedom of press and speech that the U.S. advertises.