Stockholm University has announced that it will be ending its decade-long cooperation with the Confucius Institute. The Stockholm Confucius Institute was the first branch of the Chinese government funded organization in Europe. The center will formally close on June 30.
Astrid Soderbergh, the vice-chancellor of Stockholm University described the partnership as ‘redundant’ in an interview with local newspaper Dagens Nyheter and said that the university was ‘uncomfortable’ with having an institute funded by a foreign government operating within its framework.
Several of the institutes across the world have seen their partnerships ended by foreign universities who are concerned about their influence on campus. Toronto’s district school board recently scrapped plans to establish a partnership, whilst other schools across North America have ended their collaborations, saying that Confucius Institutes restrict academic freedom, conduct surveillance on Chinese students and promote the Communist Party agenda.
Source: SCMP
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Keywords: Stockholm University Severs Ties with Confucius Institute
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I fail to understand what is the trouble having a reasonable cooperation with language institute financed by another.government. In Europe there are plenty of such institutions. All these "news" about "communist indoctrination" sound ridiculous. Till the time the average student of Chinese will be able to get "indoctrinated" in Chinese language so the years and years will pass. And even if it would not be in Chinese language, the student lives in "free information" society and.therefore of these arguments sound persuasive so what's wrong with them? And for the sake of argumentation I totally leave out that China is everything but "communist" country as Europe knows them. May be the real reason for stopping the cooperation is a bit different ...
Jan 12, 2015 23:28 Report Abuse
The problem is that universities are not supposed to be, or to partner with, promotion platforms for political agendas, let alone surveillance bases as the article seems to describe and which sounds typically like your usual CCP bullcrap. That's what you call "principles". Yes, outside of China, principles is not a meaningless word used for propaganda posters. It's actually an ongoing concept.
Jan 13, 2015 08:44 Report Abuse
Common. Majority of universities in Europe receive money from government which by definition are political institutions. Also trying to establish a mutual cooperation with another universities who are supported by another political institutions. On top of that I find the argument that Confucius Institute politically indoctrinates its students as unsupported. Nevertheless it's of course each university decision with whom they want to cooperate and each student free decision into which university to enroll. Intentionally I am not commenting your hard fact "argument" about "usual CCP bullcrap"...
Jan 13, 2015 13:05 Report Abuse
Oh, I didn't figure you were a wumao, apologies (to myself for wasting my own time). Thanks for making it explicit, your second sentence was killer. I guess you couldn't even grasp the concept that a nation could fund public institutions without expecting crass indoctrination in return. And that's sad, but nevermind. Why would you not comment about the surveillance part? It is, after all, part of the article, not of my comment.
Jan 13, 2015 15:16 Report Abuse
This isn't much in line of indoctrination, but I thought I'd put it out there. I met a girl who taught in a Confucius Institute in the USA, and she told me a little bit (but not much) about her experience there. One of the interesting things that stuck out was that the powers that be did reach out to her to take down all pictures from Facebook of her socializing, from something as normal as holding a beer, or going to some venue for nightlife. Any incident on her page with profound language (a curse word) was also problematic. While I can understand an organization hoping its members to be personal ambassadors, I don't believe this kind of top-down censorship is so necessary. The Confucius Institute basically forced the girl to censor anything and everything they deemed "detrimental" to China's national image. Well, you can see some of the politics at play there at least.
Jan 13, 2015 17:01 Report Abuse
Dear RiriRiri, the point I was trying to raise is that I really doubt Confucius Institutes would try to indoctrinate their students. I can hardly imagine any reasonable way how could they do it and I cannot see any benefit for anyone even in highly unlikely case they would really try that. But apparently this is not the part which interests you. However I will take your hint as I really see no value in having such discussions.
Jan 13, 2015 19:06 Report Abuse
www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1677976/swedish-university-severs-ties-confucius-institute __...Toronto’s district school board said in October it was scrapping plans for a partnership, while Pennsylvania State University and University of Chicago made similar announcements earlier.____ The Chinese foreign ministry has said the programmes do not pose a threat to academic freedom or integrity. Hanban did not immediately respond to inquiry.____ State-run China Daily said in a commentary in late October the programme provided a way to deepen mutual understanding and forge friendships between China and the rest world. “Some people apparently need a new pair of corrective lenses to help them see the institutes in a more objective and impartial way,” the commentary said.
Jan 12, 2015 22:49 Report Abuse
No need for lens now that the wolf has, in many instances, crawled out of the sheep's skin. CCP's message to the world '......to deepen mutual understanding and forge friendships between China and the rest world.' China's IQ test for the world. LOL
Jan 12, 2015 23:07 Report Abuse
Even more revealing the original article is. This one is in English. www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1677976/swedish-university-severs-ties-confucius-institute
Jan 12, 2015 22:53 Report Abuse
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