TEHRAN, Feb 24 -China plans to “optimize” the spread of its controversial Confucius Institutes, the government said, institutions to promote Chinese language and culture that have been criticized by some for spreading Communist Party influence.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) -In 2004, China began setting up the government-run bodies, whose stated mission is to satisfy soaring global demand to learn Chinese.
But they have drawn criticism, especially in the United States, for being little more than a propaganda arm of the ruling Communist Party, assertions denied by both the institutes and the government.
The Confucius Institute will remain a key government policy, a document on modernizing China’s education system issued late on Saturday by the party’s Central Committee and the cabinet showed.
“Optimists the regional distribution of the Confucius Institute, strengthen its abilities and building, and fully raise its educational standards,” they said in the statement, released by the official Xinhua news agency late on Saturday.
“Strengthen work on the teaching of Chinese internationally,” they added, without giving details.
Such broad statements are typically followed weeks or even months later by more detailed policy documents that focus on implementation.
Some U.S. legislators, including Florida Senator Marco Rubio, have been critical of the more than 100 Confucius Institutes hosted at universities across the United States, calling them a vehicle of Chinese influence on international higher education.
Some major U.S. colleges, including Pennsylvania State University and the University of Chicago, have cut ties with the institute after professors complained its programs were Chinese propaganda wrapped in culture and language education.
Source: Reuters
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