[Global Network Report] US Secretary of State Pompeo continued to spare no effort to suppress the Confucius Institute in China.
On the 15th local time, Pompeo once again declared that he hoped to close all Confucius Institutes (in the United States) and insisted on discrediting the Confucius Institute.
According to the public record published on the website of the US State Department, Pompeo made this statement on the Indiana radio program "Good Morning News."
He declared that the Confucius Institute is "an important part of the global influence of the Communist Party of China". It has contact with tens of thousands of American students every day, so it needs to be closed.
“We ask every high school, every K-12 school, every university to evaluate their (on campus) Confucius Classrooms and Confucius Institutes, and we hope to close them all.” Pompeo claimed that for those participating on behalf of the Communist Party of China People who operate Confucius Institutes will also not be able to enter American classes through visas.
Pompeo has been eyeing the Confucius Institute for a long time.
According to previous reports from Reuters, Pompeo said in September that he hoped that all the Chinese Confucius Institutes on American university campuses would be closed by the end of this year, claiming that he was recruiting "spies and collaborators" in American universities.
Earlier in August, Pompeo announced that the American Center of the Confucius Institute was required to register as a "foreign mission."
In response, the Confucius Institute American Center responded that it did not agree to the designation of the US State Department and CIUS had “no influence” on how American universities operate and manage their own Confucius Institute language programs, and expressed the hope that this fundamental misunderstanding could be clarified.
The Confucius Institute American Center also stated, “We look forward to sitting down with the Secretary of State to help him understand what happened. This may help stop many rumors about CIUS and the Confucius Institute.” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian responded at the time. He emphasized that the relevant US approach is to demonize and stigmatize the normal operation of China-US cooperation projects. China expresses its strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to this.
Zhao Lijian pointed out that out of ideological prejudice and self-interest, some people in the United States have brutally interfered and obstructed the normal operation of Sino-US cooperation projects, including Confucius Institutes, which is totally unacceptable.
"We have also noticed that Pompeo cited a large number of so-called reports and reports that have no factual basis in his statement, which is evident in his intention to suppress the Confucius Institute by making out of nothing."
Regarding the successive unprovoked smears of Confucius Institutes by the United States, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has stated on many occasions that all American Confucius Institutes are voluntarily applied for by American universities. Chinese and American universities have cooperated on the principles of “mutual respect, friendly consultation, equality and mutual benefit”. The daily operations and management of all these Confucius Institutes are legal and compliant, open and transparent, and have made important contributions to the promotion of cultural exchanges between China and the United States, and have been widely praised by all parties. Individuals and institutions in the United States have unfoundedly politicized the Confucius Institute, a normal Sino-US educational exchange project, showing a typical Cold War mentality.