Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has broken his promise to ban the Communist Chinese satellite propaganda Confucius Institutes in the latest brazen attempt to curry favour with Beijing.
Despite promising during the Tory leadership contest last year to ban Confucius Institutes, which are directly funded by the CCP’s propaganda department, from operating in Britain Downing Street has decided to backtrack on this pledge.
“We are taking action to remove all government funding from Confucius Institutes in the UK, but currently judge that it would be disproportionate to ban them,” a Number 10 spokesman is quoted as saying by the Financial Times.
“Like any international body operating in the UK, Confucius Institutes need to operate transparently and within the law, and with a full commitment to our values of openness and freedom of expression.
“We recognise concerns about overseas interference in our higher education sector, including through Confucius Institutes, and regularly assess the risks facing academia.”
While Beijing often claims that its outposts on foreign universities are merely meant to foster cultural and lingual exchanges, former Chinese leader Hu Jintao admitted that the ultimate goal of Confucius Institutes is “to cultivate and prepare a group (or army) of people to make sure the CCP will be in power in the future… and increase our CCP influence around the world.”
Former Chinese propaganda chief Li Changchun has also characterised Confucius Institutes as “an important part of China’s overseas propaganda set-up.”
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Confucius Institutes have been accused of shutting down debates on campuses around the world on topics deemed politically sensitive for the communist regime, including issues surrounding Tibet, Taiwan, and the Tiananmen Square Massacre. They have also been accused of surveilling Chinese students who are studying abroad.
At present, there are 30 Confucius Institutes currently in operation in Britain, including on the campuses of major universities such as Manchester, Sheffield, and Southampton.
Communist infiltration of British universities has become of increasing concern in recent years, with hundreds of academics being accused of working with institutions tied to the Chinese military in developing weapons of “mass destruction”. Dozens of universities have also been accused of working with the Chinese Academy of Engineering Physics (CAEP) to develop nuclear weapons technologies.
According to a 2021 report, a multi-branch governmental investigation “established a correlation” between the reliance on tuition from Chinese students and the amount of technology transferred from British universities to communist partners controlled by Beijing.
Former Prime Minister Liz Truss, speaking from the Prospect Foundation in Taiwan this week, took aim at her predecessor’s soft stance on China, urging him to designate the communist nation as a “threat” as she had planned to do before being ousted by a globalist coup, as well as criticising the decision to allow Confucius Institutes to continue to freely operate in Britain.
“Confucius Institutes in the UK should be closed down immediately. Instead, the service could be provided by organisations with the support of Hong Kong nationals and Taiwanese nationals who’ve come to the UK freely,” Truss said.
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