'Don't mention 3Ts': Confucius Institutes endanger academic freedom in Korea

Confucius (551-479 BCE), a Chinese philosopher and politician / gettyimagesbank

Heavily dependent on tuition-paying Chinese students, Korean universities turning blind eye to controversies surrounding Chinese government-funded culture and language centers

This article is the second in a three-part series to highlight growing anti-China sentiment in Korea and the current state of relations between the two countries. ― ED

By Kang Hyun-kyung

With sweat on their faces due to the summer heat and poor air conditioning, some 100 people, gathered at Gwangin Central Church in the southeastern city of Daegu on Aug. 6, were intently watching the documentary titled, "In the Name of Confucius."

Directed by Chinese Canadian filmmaker Doris Liu, the 2017 documentary revolves around Sonia Zhao, a former Confucius Institute (CI) teacher at McMaster University in Canada, who was unable to keep her job after her affiliation with the Falun Gong was revealed.

Zhao testified that CI teachers are trained either to refuse to answer or to change the conversation topic, in the event that students ask them questions about the so-called "3Ts" ― namely Taiwan, Tibet and Tiananmen Square, where the Chinese government brutally suppressed pro-democracy protesters in 1989 ― three touchy issues that pit China against the rest of the world. Zhao took the CI's discriminatory employment and censorship practices to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, which led to McMaster University closing the CI on its campus.

The film gives audiences in Korea a rare opportunity to learn about CIs and how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has flexed its muscles behind the scenes in order to use these government-funded culture and language centers to disseminate their ideas selectively and in a politicized manner according to their own biases and preferences.

Since the documentary premiered in a local theater in Seoul this May, a local civic group, the Citizens for Unveiling Confucius Institutes (CUCI), has organized screenings of the film to inform Koreans about the CIs and their alleged attempts to indoctrinate students in Korea and around the world.

The film has been screened in churches, conference halls and other non-theater settings in several different cities, whenever and wherever the civic group gets requests.

Unlike in Western countries, the anti-CI campaign has not drawn much attention from the Korean public.

"There are various reasons why our campaign has yet to take off," CUCI founder and president Han Min-ho told The Korea Times. "First and foremost, lawmakers have turned a deaf ear to our repeated calls to look into the CCP-backed institutions. The generous funding from China has also silenced cash-strapped universities. Being heavily dependent on tuition-paying students from China, the universities are discouraged from confronting the institutes because any possible actions could stir up Chinese students on their campuses."

If universities here close the CIs on their campuses, Han went on to say that the Chinese students there won't sit back, as the nation has already seen how "patriotic" Chinese students reacted to pro-Hong Kong rallies and other issues that incite nationalist sentiment in China.

Activists of the Citizens for Unveiling Confucius Institutes (CUCI) hold a press conference demanding the closure of Confucius Institutes in front of the Chinese Embassy in Seoul in this June 2 file photo. They claimed the Chinese government-funded cultural and language centers are a propaganda arm of the Chinese Communist Party. Courtesy of CUCI

According to the Korean Educational Development Institute, over 71,000 Chinese students were studying in undergraduate and graduate institutions in Korea as of 2019, which accounted for 44 percent of all international students here. Across the nation, 365 universities and colleges have Chinese students, and 17 of them have 1,000 or more studying on their campuses.

Korea was the first country to host a CI in southern Seoul in 2004. Since then, 22 universities have signed contracts to establish CIs on their campuses.

The risks posed by CIs drew brief media attention last year during a National Assembly inspection of the Ministry of Education, when Rep. Chung Kyung-hee of the conservative main opposition People Power Party expressed her worries about the Chinese government-funded language centers.
Chung claimed that CIs are in fact a propaganda arm of the CCP to infiltrate South Korean universities, adding that the institutes ironically do not offer any actual teachings of Confucius. The lawmaker expressed her concerns about distortions of history, stating that at CIs, the Korean War is portrayed as "the war to resist U.S. aggression and aid Korea."

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In response, the Ministry of Education vowed to team up with the Northeast Asia Foundation to conduct joint research into the controversies surrounding CIs.

This reporter checked with the Ministry of Education on Thursday if there had been any progress made during the past 10 months in their joint research activities. An official said on condition of anonymity that they have been monitoring foreign media coverage for any controversies or threats posed by the institutes. Asked when a final report or any other product of their joint research would be released, the official said that at the moment, they have no plans to produce any reports or research papers, reiterating that they will keep an eye on any overseas cases.

Terry Russell, a professor of Asian Studies at the University of Manitoba in Canada, said that there are risks to having a CI on campus.

"The main risks associated with having a CI on campus have to do with the influence and propaganda function of the CIs," he said in an email interview with The Korea Times. "The CI staff recruited in China are charged with presenting a positive image of the People's Republic of China to students and to the university community as a whole. The messaging reflects the official Chinese Communist Party narrative of Chinese culture, history and current affairs."

Russell said that having CIs on campus could undermine academic freedom. "It very pointedly excludes information critical of the CCP and its policies in Tibet, Xinjiang and Hong Kong, and must represent the official line on the true situation in Taiwan, Chinese border regions and internationally," he said. "In short, the CIs are designed to present the CCP's version of reality, and they are not a space where informed debate on important issues can take place."

Korean universities' "lenient and cozy" relationships with CIs stand in stark contrast with how universities in the West have reacted to the CI controversies. An increasing number of universities in the United States, Canada and Australia have been closing CIs on their campuses. The number of CIs in the United States, for example, has dropped to 47 in May 2021, from 103 in 2017.

Reasons for these closures of CIs vary. McMaster University in Canada, for example, severed ties with the Chinese cultural and language center for its discriminatory hiring practices, in which staff must sign agreements that they will not practice certain beliefs. Other universities decided to terminate contracts with CIs over pressure to censor the universities on topics the CCP objects to, concerns over the CIs repressing academic freedom and other problematic influences.

Russell said that the U.S., Canadian and Australian universities did the right thing by closing the CIs on their campuses. "I believe that it is absolutely the right decision for Canadian, Australian and American universities to close the CIs on their campuses," he said. "I would encourage all universities around the world with existing CIs to consider closing them."

Han Min-ho, founder and president of the civic group Citizens for Unveiling Confucius Institutes (CUCI), stages a one-man rally in front of a Confucius Institute in southern Seoul in July. It was the first Confucius Institute established in 2004 outside China. Courtesy of CUCI

The transparency of funding for CIs is another source of concern for Western universities, although this issue has been less widely reported.

David Shambaugh, an award-winning author and professor of Asian Studies at George Washington University, addressed the illegal nature of funds that universities receive when they open CIs on their campuses.

"(F)oreign universities are typically approached by the Education Counselor of the local Chinese embassy offering 'no strings attached' funds to establish a Confucius Institute. The Recipient is told that the funding comes from the Ministry of Education, but it is in fact laundered through the MOE from the Chinese Communist Party's Propaganda Department's External Propaganda Department," he said in his book, "China's Propaganda System: Institutions, Processes and Efficacy."

Universities receive $100,000 or more up in startup costs provided by the Chinese International Education Foundation, formerly known as Hanban, with annual payments of another $100,000. Teachers and textbooks are provided by the same organization, along with various paid trips and exchange programs.

Having CIs on campus paves the way for Chinese interference in universities' key decisions. After North Carolina State University scheduled a 2009 visit by the Dalai Lama, Provost Warwick Arden received a stern warning from Bailian Li, a forestry professor and the then-director of the CI on its campus, that the visit by the Tibetan spiritual leader could disrupt "some of the strong relationships we were developing with China." The visit was canceled. Arden was quoted as saying that the CI presents an opportunity "for subtle pressure and conflict."

The late American cultural anthropologist, Marshall Sahlins, called CIs "academic malware."

Canada's intelligence agency CSIS, in its annual report for 2020, "The National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians," warned of espionage as another threat of academic exchange programs with China.

Citing China's talent programs and academic exchange programs, the intelligence agency said these programs were used to exploit Canadian expertise in the areas of science and technology. "(China's) Thousand Talents Program, established in 2008 to encourage Chinese scientists abroad to bring their research to China, is currently under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department," it reads.

This reporter contacted the directors of the CIs on three university campuses in Korea via email to ask for their positions on the controversies surrounding the China-funded institutions. Two of them didn't respond and one wrote back saying that he would be willing to speak but later changed his mind without answering this reporter's questions.