The China-backed Confucius Institute is rebranding to avoid public scrutiny into its work disseminating propaganda to thousands of American students.
United States government oversight and faculty pushback have curtailed the influence of the Confucius Institute, which has dwindled from 103 college branches in 2017 to just 51 today. But the propaganda program is not going away without a fight. Experts say that after host institutions shutter Confucius Institutes, some of the programs continue to operate by adopting new names.
The rebranding has allowed the Beijing-backed influence program to continue to shape the education of students from kindergartners to college students. According to a new report by the American Security Institute, more than 100 “Confucius classrooms” that cater to the K-12 system are now rebranded as the Asia Society Chinese Language Partner Network.
“Confucius Institutes are trying to repackage themselves—same old wine, brand new bottle,” Will Coggin, managing director of the American Security Institute, told the Washington Free Beacon. – READ MORE