China Projects Soft Power Through Its Confucius Institutes

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There are approximately 100 of these institutes operating on American universities. Their purpose, at a minimum, is to project Chinese soft power and propaganda. They also increase the opportunity for China’s Communist Party (CCP) to spy and steal intellectual property. The preponderance of foreign students are Chinese and college presidents who are chasing tuition dollars are not immune to being manipulated by the CCP’s threat of opening or closing that spigot.

In the wake of nCOVID-19 pandemic our government needs to re-evalute Confucius Institutes’ threat to national security and whether or not they are centers from which ChiComs manipulate and control Chinese and Chinese-American students.

Published by ST

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49 thoughts on “China Projects Soft Power Through Its Confucius Institutes”

  1. Even the benign sounding name obfuscates this nefarious program’s diabolical endgame. Neither the history of the sage himself nor his philosophy is taught at the Confucious Institute.

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    1. ST, do you mean in the same way that certain “Islamic Institutes/Centers” and their curricula were vetted at colleges/universities/secondary schools 30-plus years ago? Oh, wait….

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  3. Oh, ST, how I would love to believe we can do something about this. But we can’t. There’s a host of regs and social memes that prohibit singling out an6brace or nation as hostile or ill-intentioned. Confucius say: They’re gonna keep on doing it.

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    1. Cannot we then at least demand reciprocity? Our oceans and the Monroe Doctrine are no longer enough to protect us. China is becoming more and more aggressive as their military muscle approaches parity with ours. Must we wait until it is too late to take common-sense measures to stop the rise of the red dragon?

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  4. Senator Cruz (TX) and Rep. Rooney (FL) have introduced identical bills to combat this. Of course, they do not specifically name China or its Confucius Institute but their bills did catch the attention of ChiComs and their American toadies.

    H.R. 6821 (115th): Stop Higher Education Espionage and Theft Act of 2018

    S. 1701: Stop Higher Education Espionage and Theft Act of 2019

    https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/116/s1701/text

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  5. Right on cue: “I am very concerned by ongoing efforts to stereotype Chinese students, scholars, and employees as threats to our institutions of higher education,” Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) told HuffPost. “While there is no doubt that we must take national security concerns seriously, it is irresponsible to categorize an entire country of people en masse as spies.”

    “The proposed bill is a bogus attempt to whip up fear and animosity towards Chinese and Chinese Americans.”
    Cynthia Choi, Chinese for Affirmative Action

    Both of these quotes from this article:

    https://www.huffpost.com/entry/francis-rooney-bill-profiling-chinese-students_n_5ba3fe9be4b0375f8f9b609a

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  7. Academia wants those Chinese tuition dollars much more than the average American fears becoming a vassal of the Communist Party of China. It is even worse than that, most Americans just want to be able to sit at a table inside a McDonalds again to enjoy their happy meals.

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      1. And see, Simon, the way you describe Americans was true before covid, but it isn’t true anymore, which is why I think if the Chinese did this purposely, they seriously miscalculated. They have awoken a sleeping giant. The way things were with China could have gone on forever if it weren’t for covid, but not anymore.

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      2. Americans have very short memories and Senators Cotton and Cruz cannot do this without broad support. Widespread support is difficult to achieve and fleeting. ChiComs’ focus is on lining influential pockets, such as Bill Clinton’s and Diane Feinstein’s. China’s global propaganda machine takes care of keeping the masses somnambulant while their patronage makes sure their short and long term goals are always met.

        P.S. I admire your eternal optimism.

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      3. It isn’t optimism, it’s what I see: the patronage you describe is being called out by name every night on Fox news. Pew did a research poll very recently which shows that 90% of Americans and over 60% of democrats view China as a threat-this poll was done after covid hit. But time will tell.

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      5. I don’t know, and I am not sure that anyone else knows either: China is always telling us that their economy is doing great-according to them, they never slow down or have any problems, but they are probably lying through their teeth. We probably have more time than China says we do.

        Even if Americans could forgive and forget the whole covid thing, no one is going to forgive or forget the fact that China has threatened to cut off our antibiotics. Americans are not going to let this slide.

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      6. China wants the US to prove our Army did not introduce nCOVID-19 into their country. LIPs (low information people) will believe that. The world wants to hate America. Who does the world blame more for so-called global warming? A. America C. China

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      7. You can bet your bottom dollar that the CIA doesn’t know.

        They fish in, navigate through, and even build ‘islands in other nations’ territorial waters. That tells me they are probably already at military parity.

        Foxtrot it. Do only Senator Cotton and I care about this? Sometimes I think I’d be bettter off just to throw my hands up in the air, buy a shack somewhere in the foothills of the Himalayas to spend my days smoking opium and deflowering the youth in the mud – to coin a phrase.

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      8. Oh, I understand that the world wants to love China and hate America: I know that. But how much? Are they willing to fight and die for the privilege of living under Chi-com rule? If not, then it’s a moot point.

        Robin was in favor of something he called “Fortress America”, which meant, basically, shutting down all immigration from everywhere. If the world hates us as much as they say do, then they can stop effing moving here, for starters.

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      9. Well if he meant it is time to being enforcing the Monroe Doctrine, I agree.

        Mental exercise: Could America in the year 2020 enforce the Monroe Doctrine?

        Answer: Your question, ST, is too hard. I just want a happy meal and for someone to make the bogeyman go back under my bed.

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  8. “Do only Senator Cotton and I care about this?”

    There are a lot of people who care about this, Simon, that is why President Trump, Bless him, was elected.

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    1. I wrote a series of articles that could be called fortress America but I chose to call it Winning the Peace. Some asshole said it was all plagiarized out of a book. America just wants to purse her lips, wag her finger at guys like me for pointing out things she don’t want to hear or know, and eat her happy meal in peace.

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      1. No, Simon. That is not the case. You are putting way too much stock in the opinion of a handful of individuals most of whom are probably paid bad actors. Mrs Dime is not America.

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      3. That isn’t what I am saying 🙂 I am just saying that most Americans are a damn site better than the ones you encountered on L1 and L2, and we aren’t going down without a fight. There will always be useful idiots; I am old enough to remember those who defended the USSR right up until the minute the Berlin Wall came down: people like that will always be around, and they will always talk a lot and be loud about it, but they do not represent America.

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  9. “Answer: Your question, ST, is too hard. I just want a happy meal and for someone to make the bogeyman go back under my bed.”

    Are you accusing me of wanting a happy meal? 🙂

    In answer to your question about whether America in 2020 could enforce the Monroe doctrine, you know, I don’t know. Before this covid thing hit, I would have said no. But now? The answer is maybe, when it comes to willingness, anyway.

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    1. Would she? Very possibly. Could she? I don’t know, at this point in time: I totally acknowledge that you know more about that aspect of things than I do. It does seem to me that the more willing Americans are, the more capable we will be.

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      1. In twenty years of conflict we could not defeat a few hundred goat herders in Afghanistan (thnx for your service Mrs. Dime. job well done) but we are going to take out a nuclear near peer country?

        P.S. I admire your optimism.

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      2. Well, but the same thing could have been said about Vietnam and the USSR; we totally screwed up in Vietnam, but went on to win the Cold War anyway. Past isn’t necessarily prologue.

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    1. These powerful people are not as powerful as you may think they are: they are definitely powerful, but they aren’t unbeatable, and Trump and his supporters have done a pretty good job of taking them on so far.

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      1. I don’t care about them. They are aiding and abetting our enemies but we just want our happy meals, dine-in please. I care about losing our position as the world’s lone superpower.

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  12. “We have more important matters to attend to such as shaming a Republican for having the wrong pattern on his mask.”

    The media are not well thought of in America, and when to public opinion of the NY Times, it’s worse than that.

    Funny story: when I first Robin, he leaned right but was kind of middle of the road, politically. He was still a relative newcomer to America, and was basically checking things out: I tried to convince him to become conservative, to no avail. He dismissed me, saying that I had been brainwashed by my parents, and he made it clear that he would be making up his own mind. Fine, Lol 🙂 A year or two after we were married, he started reading the NY Times; he had heard that it was the paper of record in America, so he made it his main paper. LOL, after a couple of weeks of reading it, he just looked at me, and he said “These people are nuts.” I was like, yeah, dude, what have I been trying to tell you all this time? But like many of us, he wouldn’t believe until he saw it with his own eyes.

    That is why I really don’t necessarily mind that most of the media are lying traitors. They don’t have everyone fooled; they don’t even have most people fooled anymore.

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    1. I am definitely not saying that all is well. I am saying that it isn’t as bad as you think it is. It’s bad, but not as bad as you think it is.

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      2. Lol 🙂 Seriously, though, never underestimate the number of conservatives who have been and are being created by the liberal media. Robin was one: my Dad was another. He first started looking into politics after reading some of his sisters’ magazines, which were mainstream and liberal. He realized it was all very one sided, and he just started looking for the other side of the story, and found National Review-that was back in the early 60’s.

        The crazier the media is, the better it works for us: don’t ever let their craziness get you down. Their insanity is our best ally and greatest advantage.

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      4. Really, you can’t make this stuff up: if the NY Times wasn’t actually printing it, no one would believe that they actually think the stuff they think. But then they print it and sign their names on it-they are helping us tremendously by doing that.

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  16. I am reminded of a planning meeting to move Marines off of Okinawa. The ‘lead’ opens up with nothing is off the table. I say, “How about we study the feasibility of moving some if not all of our assets to Cambodia?”

    Lead’s answer: “That is off the table.”

    I’m wondering in 2020 if it would not have strengthened our hand to have established that base I was recommending in Southeast Asia instead of moving everything to Guam? Americans almost always listen to me but only after it is too late.

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  17. From the link below:

    Chinese boats have swarmed around Sandy Cay, a chain of three sandbars that naturally emerged in recent years, since 2017. The sandbars lie between Pag-asa, which is internationally called Thitu, and a Chinese man-made island called Subi.

    The Philippines tried to occupy the largest sandbar, about 2.5 nautical miles (4.6 kilometers) from Thitu, in 2017 but China strongly protested. Shortly after, Chinese navy, coast guard and fishing vessels converged at the sandbars, and the Philippines halted planned construction and withdrew on the orders of President Rodrigo Duterte, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said at the time.

    https://www.khaosodenglish.com/news/asean/2019/04/04/philippines-issues-strongly-worded-rebuke-at-china-flotillas/

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  18. Speaking of short memories, does anyone remember the Hong Kong protests that had captured the world’s attention prior to Kung Flu. The timing is interesting, is it not?

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