It's out! Do Confucius Institute closures really degrade China's malign influence on college campuses? The short answer is - no.
Craig Singleton
Foundation for Defense of Democracies | Senior China Fellow | National Security Expert and Former Diplomat
Stanford University, Texas A&M University - The Bush School of Government and Public Service, Tufts University, Rutgers University, William & Mary. Those are just some of the top tier universities that closed their Confucius Institutes (CI) but maintained, and in some cases expanded, their academic and research partnerships with the Chinese schools that previously supported their CI programming. In nearly every case we examined, we learned that these Chinese schools directly support China's military-industrial complex, including its #nuclearweapons sector and cyber-espionage platforms.
That is among the many findings in the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) latest monograph, "The Middle Kingdom Meets Higher Education - How U.S. and Chinese Universities Support China's Military-Industrial Complex.
A link to the report is copied here: https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2021/12/09/the-middle-kingdom-meets-higher-education.
This report analyzes CI closures between 2018 and 2021. First, it evaluates the rationales that U.S. universities provided when announcing the closures. It also demonstrates that dozens of U.S. universities have voluntarily elected to maintain or expand partnerships with their Chinese sister universities long after shuttering their CIs. Relatedly, the report examines how these Chinese universities provide direct support to China’s military-civil fusion program and defense industry. Lastly, the report examines the 34 remaining CIs across the United States and offers a series of policy recommendations aimed at uncovering, and even neutralizing, China’s ability to leverage CIs and their associated academic partnerships to access sensitive U.S. research and development (R&D).
#nationalsecurity #china #research #universities #military #partnerships
Marcus Group Inc. President and Chief Innovation Officer The bigger the challenge the greater the opportunity
3 年Craig, great piece. I am only part way through but i am struck by the implications of this passage: "...Remarkably, U.S. universities are under no legal or regulatory obligation to disclose the details of their partnerships. Thus, it is possible that other U.S. universities maintained or expanded their partnerships with their Chinese sister universities after shuttering their CIs but did not disclose it." Individual, courageous Americans working in higher education institutions must be privy to the nature and intricacies of any and all financial relationships for which they work. ?Is there not some kind of whistleblower support group to cater to this ilk? Additionally, sounds like there needs to be more oversight by... whom? Congress, DoJ, DOD? And some legislative fixes to enhance and buttress our internal monitoring/ regulatory mechanisms. Forgive me if you go into that later in the report, I was just stunned by that passage. Again, excellent piece. Thank you
National security professional
3 年Nice piece - solid in laying out the issues and concerns. To often theses less glamorous issues are overlooked by media but significantly impact the balance.
International Strategy Consultant - Emergent Technologies, Security, and Intelligence
3 年Keep up the good work. This is an area that needs significant overhaul.
Chief Impact & Inclusion Officer | Lead, National HERO Initiative Program Management Office | Personal Development Shepherd | Divergent Thinker | Consultant
3 年Until you remove the profit motive from American business, we will always have this problem. China represents an ongoing source of growth and patriotism is not a fundamental element of most institutions. In fact, it is funny that many of the most "patriotic" organizations, profit and nonprofit, are making billions from their dealings with China (those same dealings are eroding American technological superiority too). We can have all the discussions we want but at its core, China has done one thing better than America: made it more profitable to work with them than to stay at home. And Americans, who place profit above all, took the bait.